


Stone Skin isn't so Tough

by MintLibrary



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gargoyles - Freeform, Gen, General Shenanigans, Monster of the Week, No Smut, supernatural hunts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-10 23:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4412078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MintLibrary/pseuds/MintLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Gargoyle with little clue as to what she's supposed to do, but with a little help from the brothers and company she's hoping to find out how to go about being a Gargoyle. </p><p>Set in some vague time after the events of the series, Sam and Dean are hoping to get back to helping the 'little guys' and end up also trying to help a new monster: a Gargoyle. Though nobody really knows what they're doing they hope their stumbling around will eventually land them with some answers to the boundless questions raised by a Gargoyle being alive.</p><p>Prepare yourself, this may be a bumpy ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

_She sits there in a slightly uncomfortable chair at a large empty table with a laptop open in front of her. The only light is being emitted by screen in front of her since it isn’t quite dark enough to turn on a light, but there’s not enough light to scare the shadows away completely. A look of steady concentration is written on her face and can be read in the folding of her hands that she rests her lips upon. Moving her hands away from her face she seems to have decided what to type, but ends up placing her arms onto the table on either side of the computer._

_Her stare shifts downwards to the space between the table and her stomach to land on her legs. After staring down at her lap for a couple of moments she looks up at the screen again. Concentration is banished from her eyes; her decision was made in those fleeting seconds. There is no delicacy in the way her fingers hit the keyboard. She is determined that this was the right choice to write down what she has found out._

The way things often start is with an introduction, and there are many different types. There are introductions with action in which a person is thrust into the heat of a battle against a supernatural foe or the fast paced nature of a chase scene in which the main character is running for their lives. There are ones that give a person a blow to their feelings by way of a death of a loved one or even the main character. There are also ones that start out slow with the information necessary to understand the rest of the story; some people give up on those quickly finding the beginning too boring, or tedious, to wade through. There are no better introductions for those types of stories though, and they are needed for those stories in a way some really don’t understand.

I don’t know much about Gargoyles, but I know that they aren’t exactly what you think they are. Really and truly they can basically be called humans, the ones that aren’t made to be decorations I mean. They’re a weird race in that they aren’t really born or created. Not necessarily chosen or destined. Gargoyles kind of just become it seems.

One of the biggest myths is that Gargoyles turn to stone during the day. They work much like regular humans do only at night. Humans tend to be awake during the day; Gargoyles tend to be awake at night. Humans can stay up all night and they’ll be tired during the day, same with Gargoyles in reverse. In fact, I think the best way to describe the Gargoyles is to tack it onto the end of a name, like a job title: Ginger Bross, Gargoyle.

You see what I mean. They aren’t really all that different. I mean, yeah, when they become a Gargoyle they don’t age until they give up the title, then it’s like pressing play on where they pressed pause on life, I assume. There’s more to it than just the perks, though. The overarching cause for the race, the main objective that needs to be achieved before they can give up the title, is to become a guardian for someone. It’s mostly up to the Gargoyle who they protect, how they do it, and why they chose the one they did. They can even choose a few at once if they’re feeling up to the task. The closest thing to them that you already know would probably be a guardian angel. Safely guide your charge of choice to their rest and then you chose your new charge, if you don’t give up the title.

Sounds like being a Gargoyle is all fun, protect a person of your choice until their death, and then choose whether to start again or give up the job and live your life. Maybe you just want to be a Gargoyle for a little while. When your Request comes up and you choose to become one; just guide an older person for the last few years of their life, and then toss the title and get back to your old life, right? What’s the catch?

You have to die. Before a reaper comes to guide your soul to where it belongs, when your Request slides onto the table of wherever these choices are made, someone comes to talk to you about this choice. You either become a Gargoyle or proceed to what’s next, and since you choose I’ve given this procedure the name of Request. Essentially it is I suppose, they are requesting for you to choose. You choose the option of “what’s next” it’s either death or, maybe, you get a second chance at the life you had. I’m not too informed on this ‘Request’ part of Gargoyle life. There is no going back to your “old life”, though, that much I know for sure. It’s gone forever once you choose to accept the title. You’re dead, remember? So why are Gargoyles only thought of as statues or rain spouts of some sort that protect buildings?

It all really depends on the specific case. Gargoyles, the guardian angel kind not the statue, only have to intervene from a distance most of the time and don’t have to be noticed, so they don’t and therefore aren’t readily put into stories and legends. I’ve never really met a Gargoyle, or learned about one, that told their regular charge what exactly they were, or wanted to for that matter. I’m only actually informed on the generalities to Gargoyles, so there could be some different ones out there. They’ve been friends, neighbors, co-workers, maids, butlers, etc. But coming straight out and telling someone who’s not a hunter makes you look crazy and just makes your job harder.

Some Gargoyles like to take on the traditional role of protecting buildings, which is where the common belief comes from. Gargoyles don’t have an obligation to do this. They stay near and stop water damage from happening, while also taking on spirits who want to take up residence their buildings. If you’re not a human don’t try to reside in a Gargoyle protected building. It usually doesn’t turn out well for nonhumans. This type of guarding isn’t a glamorous job like leading a human through their life, but it garners respect which is something Gargoyles are all about getting. It’s more important to them than the feeling of love is to humans. It’s the highest gift in their culture.

If you haven’t guessed, I’m not a Gargoyle. This story is different than the short, rare few I’ve read about that are written down here in the building, so I decided to archive it in some way for other Gargoyles to rely upon. Something that I would count as invaluable. Though they’ve not lead any regular charge to their end, and they never did seem like the kind of Gargoyle I've read about here, I feel like this could help another that gets into the same situation that this creature did. There is one piece of advice I can give you Gargoyles for your charges right now: A hunter as a charge will never relate to having guided a regular charge.

You take on a hunter as your charge and it’s a whole different ball game. You take on two hunters as your charges and it seems like you’re just asking for trouble.

_The writer rubs her forehead as she takes her fingers away from the keyboard, apparently in mild pain. Possibly from having stared at the screen for too long before actually getting around to putting the words down. She reaches down beside her into a bag that holds what she owns in this life and draws out two pain killers which she takes without water. She seems to think about something for a while, but soon puts her fingers back to the keyboard to recount a tale she had no real part in._


	2. Sunset Eyes

The sun had started to set mere minutes ago and the Gargoyle stirred in her bed somehow sensing this change in the presence of light. Outside, the daylight danced the colors of the day off to the other side of the world in dazzling oranges and deep reds. Inside, those same colors awaken to the world in the irises of the Gargoyle.

“I could use another thirty minutes, Mom!” she said to nobody in her regular voice.

“Get up or you’re going to be late for school!” she called out to the same non-existent ears only in a higher pitched voice.A small laugh without the accompaniment of a smile escaped her lips at her own jab at herself about school.

“Lucky I don’t have to worry about that; too much television, girl. Not enough sleep.” She sighed. Sitting up in bed she stretched her arms out to the ceiling of the dimming room as she let out a long yawn. She had spent several days wandering around trying to find the perfect room when she had first got to the bunker. After a week or so of trouble in settling down, and finally getting some reading done, she found out that the Men of Letters had had a Gargoyle before and had made him a room with what she was looking for. The room held a small but tough window along with an attached bathroom. The room also allowed her own small living area with a “kitchen”, so the past Gargoyle wouldn’t disturb the Men of Letters during the night. He also wouldn’t be forced to always be around the Men of Letters while he was trying to sleep during the day.

Moving in was easy once she had found the place. The entrance was hidden well to Human eyes, but being a Gargoyle had its advantages. Other than being able to find her new room faster and easier than it would have been for any Human she also had little to actually move in. “Gargoyles hold little in the way of possessions,” she had read in a book with a short snippet about Gargoyles in it, but she soon changed that about herself. She still didn’t have much, but she didn’t want much, and while her room remained sparse she had acquired a few things that were now around her room.

“Good morning, Tock!” she said as she flicked the face of the wall clock on the way out the door, it softly chimed out eight at night. A quiet smile played across her lips as she heard the chimes. The thing that had drawn this particular clock to her attention was the soft chimes. Soft enough that it wouldn’t jar her out of sleep if she kept it in her rooms, but loud enough for her to hear across her rooms. As sudden as the smile had begun it ended. Emotions tend not to linger long in her; perhaps it was the Gargoyle part of her. She thought of herself in two parts. One part Gargoyle and the other Human, possibly. She hadn’t quite decided on that yet.

“Check.” For the bedroom.

“Check.” For the living space.

“Check.” For the kitchen.

“Aaaaaand check.” For the bathroom, mentally ticking off her weekly check of rooms on her side of the bunker to make sure they hadn’t been discovered during the day, or damaged for that matter. Out the secret door, through the garage, past the library, down the hall, check these rooms.

“Check.” For bedroom one.

“Che- wait what?” she slid backwards to recheck the bedroom. Though empty of occupants it was obvious it had been occupied. She double checked the other room that she had already given the check on, and that one, though not as easily seen, had obviously been occupied by someone, or thing, as well.

“What’s going on? I didn’t let anyone in here. It’s been years and it’s only been me.” She thought as she softly padded into the less easily seen to have been occupied room. The bed had been made very neatly, which was one of the things that seemed odd, but more so were the two books resting on the floor by the bed as there was no room on the nightstand for these larger books. She bent down to get a closer look at what they were.

“The Mystery of Angels and one of the Bestiaries? … Yeah, not a regular Human squatter then from what I know.” she muttered shifting the books back into place. Whatever was here she wanted to know what it was before they found out that she was here. Backing out of the room and making sure it was the way she found it she then gently made her way into the newly decorated room. The things on the walls made her sure she had made the right decision about them in the other room. There were guns and knives and some dark sword-y looking thing on the walls; one book in here, but obviously not one from her library so she didn’t really care, and a photo. What stood out most in the picture to her was a woman.

“There’s no woman here. That much I know just by looking.” She scoffed as she placed the frame back where she found it. This room as well she backed out of. More careful now that she knew she wasn’t alone anymore. She went to the kitchen to check if it had been restocked since there were new guests.

‘The food is what I assume a Human would eat. What a variety; different tastes maybe. Some expires so soon. They must have a plan to be back sooner rather than later.’ she thought as she placed the milk she had picked up back into the fridge and shut it. Very few dirty dishes sat near the sink but the most abundant thing was empty bottles; most everything had been dusted or cleaned off. Warily she walked into the library. There was a laptop left on the table plugged in along with two different cell phones that were also charging. Beside these sat three more books each about different legends, but there was one open to a page on different types of exorcisms sitting next to the stack. She ran her finger across the Latin on one page mouthing but not speaking the words.

Her eyes narrowed a bit in concentration, “…Hunters maybe…” she said aloud as her hand slid off the open book. A small smile found its way onto her lips as it had this morning. This smile an indication of her hopes that they could bring back those lettered men, and that they would help her figure out what to do with her life, what she was exactly, to be a guide for this guide as she was so unsure of how to be a Gargoyle. She could also do with some respect for taking up the mantle of the past Gargoyle. It was high time to be paid back for her… years?... spent protecting this place from floods and damage. With so little written about what Gargoyles do she was lost as to how to go about her life, but a Hunter could know more. A Man of Letters would probably be a jackpot, but if she could get help from a Hunter she would take it.

A rumbling interrupted her reminiscing. It grew louder and closer, as did her newfound panic.

‘What if it’s not hunters? What if it is? Things must have changed in the amount of time from what I’ve read about Men of Letters and Hunters. What’s the best choice?’ she thought as her gaze darted around her library.

‘The best choice is the safe choice.’ She settled on as she called out her wings to hide her above view on two bookshelves. She scooted away from the table until her bare feet touched the wall and then repealed the call to her wings. As they disappeared the new tenants found their way into her bunker effortlessly.

‘How long have they been living here?’ she thought as their footsteps grew closer.

“I told you it’d be a simple hunt. Why do you doubt me on these things, Sam? You got to have trust in me. I’m your older brother. Isn’t that how things are supposed to work anyway? The younger trusts the elder?” spoke a man as he tossed a bag onto her table and kept walking towards the kitchen. The bag had been partly open and a few items had fallen out. The main ones that stood out to her though were the gun and a knife of some sort.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, man. It’s just that you’re so reckless. If I hadn’t found that new exorcism before we left…” this new man, Sam she assumed, trailed off shaking his head as he placed the items back in the bag, zipped it, and then placed it on the chair. He shut the open book and opened the shut laptop as the other man came back in with a plate and a sandwich.

“Dean, chew with your mouth closed.” Sam said as he clicked out of some windows.

“My mouf ish closhed.” The man she now knows as Dean said.

‘Then, hunters it is.’ She thought as she settled in to overhear their conversation, or maybe argument would be a better word. There was no obvious way to exit this situation until they left, so waiting them out was her key to secrecy.

The Gargoyle quietly turned onto her back to stare at the ceiling. She had seen enough of the two men. Dean was the older one as he kept trying to tell Sam. He seemed to forever need to be doing something be it eating, talking, or walking. Sam on the other hand handled sitting still like a professional.

She fiddled around with her dyed black hair while ignoring the guys at the table. She thought about how she could approach them without them automatically freaking out. ‘Maybe I could just take whatever is thrown at me if I just jumped down now… ‘She trailed off in thought. ‘Not knowing much about what you’re capable of dealing with or dishing out isn’t helping my situation any. I wish I knew how other Gargoyles did this. How did they figure out their lives?’

“I know I’ve said this before, Sammy, but man, does this job suck or what? I mean I know I used to say ‘Saving people, hunting things, the family business,’ but honestly we haven’t been able to actually help many people lately.” Dean’s voice said this as she threw her thoughts out. The thoughts wouldn’t be of any help in her current situation with the direction they were headed in.

She heard a click. The laptop had flipped closed; she flipped back over to her stomach.

“Dean,” Sam started.

“No, no, I get it. I know in the grand view of everything we’ve saved people from some huge things. What I’m talking about though are just the individuals. Not the big plots we foil, but the poor bastards that have ‘The Poltergeist’ tossing things around their home, or even just stopping stupid people from making deals with demons. Heck, maybe even stop them from making deals with the asshole angels.” He expanded on his original thought.

“We just cleared a new apartment building site of the hauntings that were taking place, Dean. We’re still helping out the little guys.” Sam explained to his brother.

“Yeah… I just… I wish we did it more often I guess.” Dean said standing and putting his hands behind his head. “I’m turning in for tonight.”

Sam looked at the clock, “It is getting late for not doing any real research.”

As Dean rounded the corner to his bedroom he shot a phrase back to his brother that the Gargoyle heard as: Sweet dreams, Sammy-boy. It was obvious by the look on the other man’s face that this wasn’t something he necessarily enjoyed hearing, but from the laughter the echoed off the walls of the Gargoyle’s home it seemed like the older brother enjoyed making the jab at Sam.

Sam picked up the four books still lying on the table and proceeded to put them back in their places. The third one belonged on one of the shelves she was laying on.

‘I could stay up here and stay in hiding or I could get the hard part over with by going the easiest route and contacting Sam first. He seems to be less easily agitated and maybe that will hold him back from attacking me before I can explain what this mix up is all about.’ She scooted her knees up under her and watched the man place the second book in its place. ‘This building is my Charge and I’ll be damned if I let two men scare me away from it. Someone WILL come back to this place and they’ll help me. They have to, right?’

Sam was below her now, not as low as she thought he would be though. Her estimations of height proved to be wrong. Her nervousness jumped around her body from shaky hands to upset stomach to dry mouth. She obviously wasn’t used to new people. He had placed the book. Now or never.

‘That’s not right. Not “Now or never” more like “Now or in a less likely to come out in my favor situation. It’s not like-‘ she cut her own thoughts off as she spontaneously decided to go for it and take the risk. Landing lightly on her bare feet she came to understand how bad she was at guessing heights. The light landing wasn’t light enough as Sam spun around dropping the last book and crouching to fight.

It was like they were both decoration gargoyles, and neither moved until Sam locked eyes with her. Confusion flitted across his face but soon switched over to what seemed to be a mix of curiosity and awe. The thought of being the object of someone’s curiosity caused her to smile a bit; the sight of which sealed the “I’m not gonna kill you” deal with Sam. They both stood a bit straighter as silence stretched for the distance between them, which wasn’t that large.

The stillness was broken by Sam moving to a position which strangely made the Gargoyle happy. It was the customary bow that someone does when they are in the presence of a Gargoyle. As he lowered himself closer to the floor he said, “Thank you for watching over this place.”

The Gargoyle lowered her chin to her chest and bent slightly at her waist in his direction in return and spoke, “It’s what I’m here for.” She didn’t know how she knew to say those words or how she knew the way to move, but Sam smiled and stood up again.

“So, a Gargoyle.” There was a slight pause, “Wow.”

She didn’t know how to respond and her nervousness at meeting a new person was kicking into overdrive, so her silence was her response. He kept staring right into her eyes so she shifted them to looking just beyond his head.

“Oh, sorry,” he scrambled to find the right thing to do and in the process knocked over a bag that was sitting on one of the chairs. As it fell it pulled on one of the cords connected to the electronics causing more things to fall and clatter to the floor. The noise rang through the room.

From down the hall Dean came walking, “What the hell, Sam? What are you trying to do in here-“ as he rounded the corner and saw at least one person he didn’t recognize he dove for the bag that had fallen.

“Wait Dean, no! She’s okay! It’s okay!” Sam said as he moved between the two.


	3. Name Game

_If you could choose your name, what would you pick? It’s hard to think about if you’ve never thought about it before. Many have lived their whole lives with one name, and so they have all the memories that come with that name. It’s probably easier when you never had a name before and get to pick one. It’s probably just as easy if you just don’t remember your name._

Throughout the entire series of events the Gargoyle’s only movement involved the changing expressions on her face. The frantic movement of Sam to get between Dean and her caused him to trip over his own feet and land nearly on his own brother. The action drew a curt laugh from the Gargoyle which ended all the commotion with its suddenness.

“Did… did she just laugh?” Dean turned to Sam.

“I believe she did, which is weird I thought gargoyles were more like how Castiel was when we first met him. You know, stoic and unchanging.” Sam explained.

Dean made a face, “Yeah, gargoyle… what? You mean a stat-“

“I am NOT made of Stone. I’m as alive as both of you.” The Gargoyle interjected huffing out a breath through her nostrils just to add emphasis to what she said. It didn’t work out so well and got stuck in her throat. The laughter came from the guys now.

“That’s not saying much! Who’s to say we’re really truly alive anymore with how our lives have gone. Heck, who’s to say we’re both still completely HUMAN?” Dean helped his little brother up and put the bag away. “Okay, if you’re so sure she’s fine I’ll trust your judgment. What’s your name?”

“I’m…” her eyebrows knitted together without her notice. Silence seemed to be a close ally to the Gargoyle since it kept showing up in her current situation. “…not sure?” she phrased the answer as a question.

“Well how are you doing Not Sure? I’m Dean and this is my little brother Sam.” Dean stuck out his hand and she shook it with slight reluctance.

‘I’m already adjusting to being around other people. That was fast.’ The Gargoyle thought as Dean started to put away the things that had fallen.

“How can you not know your own name?” Sam asked as he stood up; the only damage to his person being the slightly bruised ego at falling for moving too fast.

“I’m not sure.” She answered.

“Well, Not Sure, the name I’ve given you seems to be holding water with how your responses are. It’s like the only answer you’ve been giving us. How about we start with: How long have you been here?” Dean asked leaning against a wall and crossing his arms.

“I’m… not sure. I’m not good with keeping track of time.” She answered again.

“Okay. Why are you here?” Sam tried his hand at getting a different answer.

“I’m… also not sure.” The Gargoyle grew uncomfortable with her own lack of answers. How could she not have asked these questions of herself before now? Her head lowered in visible shame with her incompetence.

“Come on, there has to be something you know about yourself. Anything. Give us a bone here, kid.” Dean threw up his hands and let them fall back to his sides. “We’re trying to help you.”

“Well, I know I’m not a kid. I’ve been here for a while. Possibly longer than you’ve been, or maybe shorter… time just doesn’t work with me. There must have been another person here like me, at one time or another, because I’m using their rooms. I know how to read, write, talk, think-“She was cut off by Dean.

“What? No, we checked this whole place out before we settled in. There’s no way you could have been here before us.”

“My rooms are past the garage.” She pointed with a tilt of her head and Dean set off to go find them.

“He’s not going to be able to get to them is he?” Sam asked.

“Probably not.” She confirmed.

“So… umm… Gargoyle. Would you like a name? I mean, you don’t have to have one, but I think maybe you’d like one. I was trying to think of something to call you by and I came up with one that’s sort of fitting to your current state.” He explained.

She shrugged. “Might as well. It’ll make things easier in the long run if I have something to call myself. What is it?”

Sam sat in a chair and pulled out a notebook and pen. “It’s actually a cool name, I think. I learned it when I had to take this one class in college to fulfill a requirement. It didn’t even relate to my major, but it seemed like a class that would, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Here try to say this.”

He pushed the notebook over to the Gargoyle and watched as she read the single word on the paper. She wasn’t totally sure how to say it, but Sam had only said to try. He must have known it was going to be difficult.

“mmm-neh-meh-seen?” she said knowing it was coming out wrong.

“Haha, points for actually trying. The best way I’ve found to pronounce it is knee-MOSS-uh-knee. Mnemosyne. She was an ancient Greek goddess of memory. It fits because yours seems to be screwed up. “He chuckled.

“Okay, so I can’t find those rooms anywhere. Are you sure you live here?” Dean said walking back into the room and conversation.

“Yes. I do. Are you sure you do?” she turned towards him.

“Of course! How is that even a question? This is like… our-“ Dean fumbled for words.

“Inheritance.” Sam finished for him.

“Yeah, that’s it. Man, I must be tired. Driving all that way and staying up the night before. How are you still functioning, Sam?” Dean pulled out a chair next to Sam and flopped into it.

“I’m just a high functioning insomniac at times I suppose.” Sam answered as he slipped the notebook back into one of the bags. “Why couldn’t Dean find your rooms?”

“I’d guess since they were made for someone like me only someone like me could easily find them. In other words: My eyes are better than yours.” Mnemosyne said as she watched Dean reach into a bag and pull out the notebook Sam had just placed back inside.

“M. Nem. Oh. Sin…eh? What’s this gibberish, Sam?” Dean placed the notebook back on the table.

“It’s her name.”

“Wait! She remembers something now?!” Dean sat up straight from his slouched position at this news.

“No. I gave her one. Everyone deserves a name, Dean. We can’t just keep calling her Gargoyle… or ‘Not Sure’” he rolled his eyes at what Dean had called her.

“I, for one, appreciate the gesture. That’s my name now. Mnemosyne.” She nodded after saying it.

“Can I at least give you a nickname? A four syllable name is just calling for one.” Dean pleaded.

“I suppose you could, but if I don’t like it you’ll have to think of another one.” Mnemosyne answered.

“Okay. Umm… Bendy!” Dean laughs.

“What? How did you even decide on that?” asked Mnemosyne.

“Knee! A knee bends… no?” the laugh ends as nobody else joined in. “Okay, okay. How’s… umm… Nina. Nina sounds good, right?”

Mnemosyne shrugs, “It works for me.” She starts nodding, “Yeah, I like it as well. Nina.” She tried out her first nickname. Sam yawned and stood up from his chair.

“Okay, really this time. Let’s head off to bed.” Sam looked over to Nina. “Maybe you should show us where you live so we can wake you up tomorrow, and… well. I’m not sure, but we’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

“I’ll be up when you get up.” She stated matter-of-factually.

“Yeah, but maybe just in case.” Dean retorted.

“I’ll be up.” 

“How can you know for sure?” Sam asked.

“I’m usually up until around 10 or 11, and I think you’ll be up by then at least.”

“So you’re a night owl?” Dean asked as Sam said: “Oh, Gargoyles are nocturnal?”

“Yes is a suitable answer for both of those questions.”

As Dean got up and turned to walk away he said, “If Sam trusts you then I’ll trust you. Goodnight!”

“Yeah, I do.” Sam started towards their wing of the bunker, “Goodnight, Mnemosyne.”

“Goodnight.” She stood and nodded towards them as they headed out. ‘Could’ve gone worse’ she thought sitting back down and crossing her arms behind her head. While leaning back she thought that the silence in her home had a different feeling to it. Yeah, the silence wasn’t so quiet anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're here for the relationships they won't start for quiet a while yet.
> 
> For this inconvenience I'm sorry, but I hope you like what I've posted.


	4. Is The Family Back in Business?

The night passed without any more excitement, Mnemosyne went about her usual business. She cleaned her few things since it was her cleaning day and then went about rereading the few Gargoyle books there were that she had found. As she was going through the second of the three which only had a short chapter on her kind she came across the passage that discussed how a first meeting with a Gargoyle guarding a building should go.

‘Oh, so that’s how I knew what to do.’ She thought. ‘I should pay more attention when I read and not just scan.’

As it got closer to 8 in the morning the sky lit up. Shifting from a dull gray to a similarly dull blue and finally settling into the bright blue of what would probably be a beautiful day. Nina decided to make some breakfast for her guests and dinner for herself. Unsure of what exactly their tastes were she pondered what to make with what little she had in her rooms. Walking out to check the main kitchen she decided on omelets since she could easily throw different ingredients in and the food would still taste good. After grabbing the eggs the men had in their fridge she grabbed the package of bacon since she didn’t have any in her kitchen. As she heated the pan she took out some ingredients for her ‘dinner’ that might also be tasty for the guys’ breakfast. Scoffing at her accommodation for who were essentially intruders in her home she proceeded to make the food.

Mnemosyne turned on the oven and placed the ingredients for muffins on the counter. She pulled out the mini muffin tray and after making the omelets, one with some bacon and cheese sprinkled in the other with spinach and tomato pieces according to what she had seen in their fridge, she placed little paper cups in each space in the tray and filled each with some batter. One tray was all she made, Gargoyles didn’t eat much. She’d probably only end up eating two of the tiny things. The whole tray she made would last her all week, but she didn’t expect them to last that long with Sam and Dean here.

There was only room enough on her arms and in her hands for her to take the two plates with omelets out to the big table in the library along with triples of all the silver ware. The muffin’s baking smell started to permeate into the library and waft around the bunker. It seemed to spawn little blueberry babies in the air as the batter baked. She went back for her plate, put the butter dish on the plate, and placed the rest of the bacon on another plate and rested that on the serving basket of muffins. Happy she could use some of her decorative dishes she nodded at her table setting and listened to the soft sounds of Dean waking up while Sam showered. He had done some morning exercises or something while she was finishing her baking and setting the table.

Dean walked out with squinting eyes and audibly sniffed the air.

“What’s all this, Nina?” Dean said rubbing his eyes open. The sleep lingered in his limbs causing the numb stumbling he did over to a chair to rest his hands on.

“I thought since I finally had someone to cook for I’d make breakfast.” Nina gestured to the plates and the basket, “I actually kind of enjoyed it.” She added.

Dean leaned over the chair and grabbed the plate with the bacon and cheese omelet on it, ‘So he’s the one with the savory tastes.’ She thought.

After grabbing a fork and taking a bite Dean sat down and placed the plate in front of him. He swallowed and commented, “Wow, you can stay.”

“I think it’s more me giving you permission. Since you like my food: ‘Wow, YOU can stay.’” She said sitting down as well and taking a muffin and a tiny amount of butter. As they started eating Sam came out and sat down with a towel catching the drops of water from his wet hair draped over his shoulders. He didn’t seem to take much time to dry his hair and it sort of resembled a drowned animal on his head.

“Thanks!” he said as he stacked his plate with three muffins.

Mnemosyne nodded and placed her head on a bridge of her hands. As she was wondering whether she had ever been a human before, Dean cleared his throat and asked, “So, umm, are you going to eat anything more?” He seemed a bit wary to take more in light of Nina only having taken a single muffin, but it was also seen that he was wanted a muffin or two more.

“Huh?” she said taken out of her thoughts, “Oh, no. That’s really all I eat, I mean, I’ll probably have one more,” she reached and took one more of the mini muffins, “but really, that’s all I need. Gargoyles don’t eat much, I think.”

“Well, that’s something I never knew. Then again, I don’t know anything really solid other than that you are a Gargoyle, which is more than Dean, but still not much.” Sam said pushing his plate towards the center of the table. “What else do you know about yourself?”

“Not much. Let’s see. I sleep mostly during the day, I don’t eat much, I have gray hair, I-“ she started to list off what she knew.

“What? But your hair is black right now.” Dean asked.

“Yeah, it’s kind of weird to be so young looking with gray hair. Therefore, in order to blend in better I dyed it black. It helps with the little bit of outdoor activity I do, and interaction with other humans.” She stated.

“That makes sense, so you usually try to just blend in then?” Sam asked.

“Yes. Much less of a problem to live quietly that way.” She answered. “But the only other things I really solidly know about myself is that at night I can call out my wings and claws, my eyes are reddish orange, and I think I have tougher skin than humans. I don’t have evidence for the last, but oh well.”

“That’s the only way I figured out that you were what you are. Gargoyle eyes have to be some of the coolest.” Sam said. “But you can only “call out” your wings at night? And claws?”

“Yeah, I’ve tried to coax them out during the day during a short period of mild curiosity, but they just didn’t show." She shrugged, "What are your plans for today? “Mnemosyne asked.

“I’m hoping to find another case and head out, but maybe we should try to figure out how you came to be what you are, Nina. Find out where you came from, if you have family, all that. What do you think, Sam?” Dean pointed at her with his fork while talking to her before setting it down and placing his plate on Sam’s and Nina’s. Everything Mnemosyne had made was gone except two muffins and a slice of bacon. Dean picked up the bacon slice to munch on, then picked up the plates and headed to the kitchen.

“I’m up for a little bit of detective work instead of brawling with monsters.” Sam said, “No offense.” He added quickly.

“I’m not a monster. None taken.” Mnemosyne said with a yawn. Though it was only a little after 9 this was the most she had done in… how long had it been? There’s the bad time keeping again.

“Woah there tiger. It looks like it’s your bed time.” Dean said walking back in with what looked like some orange juice, a glass of water, and surprisingly some chocolate milk. At the sight of chocolate milk Sam raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment. Dean set the water in front of Sam, drank some orange juice, and gave the chocolate milk to Nina. “I thought I’d try my hand at making you something since you made us something.” Dean smiled in a proud way at his little gesture.

“Thank you.” She grabbed the milk and got up taking a sip. “I think I will go to bed, sorry to leave you without helping with whatever you decide to do.”

“We have a small list of things we should probably go over when you wake up later. Right now, though, you can go get some rest. You’ve done more than enough just watching over this place.” Sam said. Acknowledging the compliment with a slight bow like before Nina headed back towards her rooms.

“What was that?” Dean asked sliding a computer over to him from down the table.

“What was what?” Sam asked.

“That thing she did before she left.”

“It looks like I’ll have to teach you what little I already know about Gargoyles.”

After saying her goodnight to Tock, Nina closes the old worn curtains on the small window in her room. The room slowly turned brighter as the sun crept higher and higher. The curtains didn’t touch the bottom of the window; she should get new ones. The slash of light across the room gradually changed colors and grew in intensity as the Gargoyle’s eyes slowly closed and her consciousness slipped from the world.

Swept into a dimension of dreams and darkness she slept comfortably as Dean and Sam wandered around looking for books on Gargoyles. They found none, of course, since they were all in Nina’s rooms, so they moved on to looking around the internet for cases and information on Gargoyles. Around noon Sam decided to head out to a nearby library and see about checking out some mythology books there.

After Sam left Dean continued with the case searching, only slightly worried about his Baby, but trusting that Sam would bring her back in one piece. He did make him promise after all. He reached into the basket that had been left on the table and grabbed the last muffins to finish them for a quick snack. They were surprisingly still as amazing as they had tasted that morning. The muffins themselves seemed to hug the berries without smothering them or dissolving them into the dough.

Somehow exhausted by sitting he decided to try to find those rooms again. How hard could it be? He must have missed something because he was tired last night. Running his hands across the wall, there must be a seam after all, he walks behind all the vehicles and thinks about some of the articles he had read trying to decide if any of them were case worthy.

He hears his Baby pull up outside and glances down to his watch and finds that it’s nearly 3. He heads back to the library to greet Sam as he comes in. He has one particularly large book in his arms and a bag of food resting on top of that.

“What’dya find?” Dean asked grabbing the bag and peeking inside to see the contents.

“Only found this book which has a chapter on Gargoyles, but I’m not sure if anything in it is true. We’ll have to test it out when Mnemosyne wakes up.” Sam answers setting down the book and pulling out a chair. Dean placed a burger in front of him.

“So I think maybe that the case in Nevada is actually worth looking into.” Dean said sitting across from him and pulling a burger out while also pulling the book closer. Sam shook his head and grabbed the book back.

“Finish eating first. You don’t need to get the book as dirty as you get your shirts.” Sam said.

“Oh, come on. That’s a low blow. I don’t even spill that much.”

“Tell me about Nevada and we’ll decide on whether or not to go, then we’ll look through the book.”


	5. I Believe The Family Is

   “It seems like there’s a kid that’s actually won three jackpots recently. All in a row, one each of the last three nights. It reeks of some sort of witchcraft.”

   “No way there’s just some sort of luck to him you think?” Sam asked.

   “No way, Sammy boy. No such thing as luck this good in our business. What do you think, you up for some witchy battles?” Dean asked taking a large bite out of his burger.

   Sam sighed, “Might as well. Just seems like a case to educate someone on the dangers of fooling around with things they don’t understand.” He handed Dean a napkin as ketchup slid out of the burger and onto the tabletop. “Think we should bring Mnemosyne along?”

   “What? Why? She seems like she’s fine here.” Dean wipes up his spill, “She can work on her own case while we're gone, and when we get back we can start up helping again. Plus it’s not like she can really help out. She doesn’t really understand what we do.”

   “I’m pretty sure she’s a quick learner,” he taps the book to emphasize this point, “and who knows, we could use her help. Haven’t you gotten in trouble in Vegas?”

   “I said Nevada, not Las Vegas!”

   “But it IS in Vegas, isn’t it?”

   Dejectedly Dean nodded. Sam smiled. “That’s not even close to fair. I mean, we needed the money. I just… found a new way of obtaining it.” Dean said.

   “Mm-hmm.” Sam said crumpling his burger’s wrapper and tossing it into the bag.

   “What do you know? You were, like, four! How do you even remember that?”

   “When the police knock on our door, which is actually not that often, I tend to remember it.”

   “That’s because we’ve gotten good at what we do. We don’t get caught.”

   “Except for that security camera, right?”

   “One time!” Dean said as he grabbed the trash and walked out to throw it in the kitchen trash can. “Once!”

   “Twice.” Sam corrected.

   “TWICE!” Dean agreed by yelling angrily.

   They cracked open the book and made a list of things to ask Mnemosyne when she woke up. On the top of the list is to ask her to: ‘Conjure her wings and stuff’ as Dean wrote in surprisingly neat handwriting. They wrote down the other things they found in the book to figure out if she could do them. By the time they had finished the list it was nearing 5pm. They moved on to seeing what they could find out about Aaron Gilbert, the guy winning all the money in Vegas.

   “Says here in an interview after his second winning that he was going to pay off his student loan debt.” Dean raised his eyebrows as he saw the figure that Aaron was going to pay off, “Boy, am I happy you went to college on scholarship, Sammy.”

   Sam rolled his eyes and nudged the memories of college back from his mind. Nostalgia wasn’t something he wanted to get hung up on right now. He scrolled through the article he was supposed to be reading and scanned the lines. “Hey Dean, look at this picture.” He turned his laptop so that the screen faced his brother and pointed out the picture of Aaron in the article. The caption stated that the person next to him was his best friend, and what Aaron considered his only family, Caleb.

   The objects that made Sam turn the computer screen were around their necks. Caleb, who was wearing a tank top, had the most of the necklace showing, but Aaron definitely had one on as well. The necklaces weren’t made from regular circular or rectangular links. Each link was a metal Enochian symbol. In the article, the interviewer had asked about what made Aaron lucky enough to have won so many times in a row. The article said that Aaron seemed to be lost in thought for a second then he attributed his success to the friendship necklaces that Caleb made for them. He said that Caleb was like a brother to him and gave him one of the two identical pieces before they left to go to Vegas to enjoy their last underclassman summer.

   “Okay, so there are a few possibilities here. One, they both know what’s going on and they’re using some sort of spell or something that’s contained in the necklaces. Two, only one of them know what’s going on. Three, neither of them have any clue and Caleb actually found them.” Dean pointed out.

   “The third option opens up the possibility that some demon or angel is setting them up for something.” Sam added. He got up and started to look through book titles to find a resource for luck charms.

   “Maybe we should call Cas down. I mean, he should be able to help with this.” Dean said waving his hand towards the screen in front of him to indicate the Enochian symbols.

   “He’s kind of busy don’t you think? Heaven’s been a mess since the… well… you know.” Sam trailed off having found the book he was looking for and leafing through it to the page that the index said luck charms were in.

   While Sam was absorbed in the text on luck charms Dean went back to leafing through the book that contained information on Gargoyles. They had already wrote down everything they thought might have been useful to attempt with Nina, but what else was he supposed to do waiting for Sammy to get done with his researching. Having already read through the chapter twice himself he moved on to the other parts of the book. There wasn’t much of interest in the other chapters, mostly stuff he had grown up learning, but the pictures were pretty neat to look at. For what seemed like such an old book the colors and artistry really showed through well.

   He turned a page in a chapter that seemed to just list the scary things that lurked in building shadows and came across an interesting illustration. It depicted a person walking by an ally in what was either sunset or sun rise and in the shadow of the ally there were two reddish orange eyes. They weren’t scary though, so it seemed out of place with all the other scary monster eye images. He flicked back to the opening of the chapter just to confirm that he was actually in the same chapter he had been in for the past couple of minutes.

   Turning back to the page there was tiny faded text near the image that was hard to read. He brought the pages of the volume closer to his face. The musty smell of years the book had lived through snaked up his nose as he pressed farther in. It wasn’t text, there were indents where markings should have been visible. His head nearly inside the book to try to make out the markings he didn’t see Sam waving at him.

   “Dean… DEAN.” Sam startled his brother out of his concentration.

   “What! What?” Dean leaned back in his chair.

   “You looked like an old man trying to read a newspaper or something. What’s up? What’dya find?”

   “Eh, nothing. I think someone must have spilt some food onto that page a long time ago. Decided to try sciencing to figure out what it is… or was…” He explained.

   “Ew. Yeah, okay, whatever. Anyway, I can’t find squat on this type of charm in the books I’ve read. Maybe we should call on Cas.” Dean looked at the table when Sam mentioned books. Apparently he had been looking at the book for longer than he thought because Sam had read chapters in at least four different books he counted.

   “Hey.” Nina walked out into the room, sleep already seemed to have left her limbs like she had been awake for a while.

   “Well, good morning sunshine! How was your rest?” Dean asked turning from Sam’s questioning gaze to greet the new comer.

   “Fine. What have you got going on here?” she said as she slid into an empty seat on the other side of the guys.

   “Well, I found a book that had a chapter on Gargoyles in it. I checked it out of the local library since there didn’t seem to be any here. Which is strange. I’d think the Men of Letters would have information on them if a library does.” Sam inquired.

   “They do. I have them in my rooms. Would you like me to bring them back out?”

   “Yeah, sure, if you don’t mind.” Sam said. Mnemosyne got back up and headed back in the direction she came. Sam turned back to Dean. “So?”

   “So what?” Dean asked already knowing what Sam was asking about.

   “Cas. Are we gonna try to get Cas in on this one?”

   “I’m not sure. I just don’t feel like bothering him.” Dean replied.

   "Dean, you were just suggesting this a little while ago." Sam pointed out.

   "Yeah, but a person can change their mind right?"

   "Okay, you know what? I'll just roll with this for right now. But there's something you're not telling me, and it's not what type of food was in that book." Sam relented.

   Nina came back with the few books that she had taken to her rooms. "They don't say much, in fact I think there's more in the book you brought back than what's in these." She pointed out.

   "That's okay, I still want to at least glance through them. Thanks, Mnemosyne." Sam said pulling the small stack of very thin books towards himself. "We made a list of things from the book we found that we thought you could try out. Maybe you and Dean can go try them out while I dig through these real quick." He suggested.

   "Yeah! Let's get going Nina!" Dean scooted out of his chair and led the way out towards empty rooms. Nina glanced back at Sam as she followed him with a raised eyebrow at Dean's excitement over this. Sam just shrugged and shook his head.

“Okay, so first things first.” Dean glanced at the list, “You can conjure your wings…”and stuff”, correct? Can you do so now?” Dean asked when they finally reached what seemed like an unused storage closet. It was quite tall and fairly wide though, so it might once have been something else but the dusty shelves on the walls and rolled up carpet, or was it tapestry, leaning on the walls made it seem to have been re-purposed for storage.

Nina’s eyes wandered back to land slightly to the left of Dean’s face. Her answer was her wings unfurling from behind her. They definitely weren’t the typical angel type wings. The default white, soft, feathery things that are always depicted on cards and in drawings. Mnemosyne’s wings were leathery like a bat’s wings, or what you would image a dragon’s wings were. The bone structure, when it ended after ribbing out the wings, were tipped with claws. ‘Talons.’ Dean called them in his head. They weren’t large talons, but they were significant enough to stand out.

Their color was most definitely black along the top of the wings and what you could call the “background” of them, but as you looked at the stretched out skin between the bones of the wing it seemed to shift depending on the light or how you looked at it. It was a little mesmerizing, like the marbling of car run off in rain puddles, but with deeper, darker colors. He reached out to trace the short lived, barely there, designs and found that, for all the look of being rough, the wings feel soft.

“Woah.” Dean said rubbing the skin with his fingers.

“Yeah, but now image just waking up to them. I stared at these for, like, two days straight. It’s not a downside, I can tell you that much.” Nina said, glancing herself at her wings.

Snapping out of his fascination with the fantastical things he returned to his list. She could conjure talons from her hands, ‘Claws.’ Dean corrected himself, and she had some wicked sharp teeth when the claws came out as well. The book had said that Gargoyles and water were closely related, but Nina just couldn’t figure out how to control it. At one point they both thought that she had turned the tide of the stream of water that Dean spilled out of a glass he brought in, but really it could have just been a slope.

“Do you scare away evil spirits just from them seeing you?” Dean asked as they moved on to the next item on the list.

“Honestly? I don’t know. This place has so many charms and spells and protection sigils in, on, and around it I haven’t had to test that yet.” Sifting through some ways they could test this theory Nina interrupted his thoughts, “I don’t think we should be trying it out either. At least, not inside the bunker. If you can get something inside here, through all this protection, and I DON’T scare it off how exactly do you plan on getting something that strong back out?”

Dean nodded, “Point taken. There isn’t really anything else we found that we could really put to the test after what we covered so far. I guess we’re done.”

“Okay then.” Nina nodded back, but Dean was still looking at her. She looked to her sides and towards her feet then back at Dean, “What?”

“I’m not sure. I read, well more like deciphered this one sentence in the book. It wasn’t in code or anything, just faded away and mostly just indents on the page now. It was by a picture of a man walking by an alleyway and there were… well… your type of eyes looking out at him.”

“What did it say Dean? What are you asking me?”

“It said: They can be guardians for you.”

“For who?” Nina asked.

“For us, for the humans reading the book. Just listen real quick. What if I asked you to watch over Sammy for me? To guard him from getting hurt? I mean, I know it’s my job to do that as the older brother, but if we go on this trip to Las Vegas I can’t be around him like usual. Heck, I doubt if I’ll be able to leave with him much at all there since he’ll probably be going to Casinos and things I got banned from, but you can be with him. And I just want him to be safe. I’ve kind of got Cas watching over me, but I’m all Sam’s got, Mnemosyne. If I can’t be there for him I would really be grateful if you could watch over him as his kind of guardian angel. It doesn’t have to be for long. I’ll take the mantle back up once the case is over, but the case just feels a bit wrong and I want to be double sure he’ll be fine. Not that he can’t handle himself, but I’m his brother, his older brother, it’s part of the job description to worry, right?” Once Dean started talking everything he had been thinking just tumbled out. He didn’t want to feel like he was forcing her to do anything, but the case did rub him the wrong way, and Cas, even with his newfound knowledge of pop culture, stuck out like a sore thumb so calling him in to watch Sam didn’t seem as smart as getting Nina to do it.

“I know you’ve only known us for what amounts to a handful of hours, but if that little note was right, in that you guard humans, well maybe that’s what you’re here for? Not that all you’re good for is to serve humans. No nononono. Look, what I’m trying to say is: If Gargoyles can be called guardians then you must be strong. While Sam is strong himself I think having some supernatural strength to back him up would put my mind at ease on this one.” Stopping himself to take a breath Dean picked his head back up. Noticing he was pacing while monologue-ing he stilled himself and looked Mnemosyne in her eyes. “Will you watch Sam when I can’t, Nina?”

Right from the start of the miniature speech Dean had given Nina felt a little weird. Not weird creeped out, but a good weird. The first time he asked her to watch over Sam she smiled, not that Dean had noticed since he was watching his feet and gesturing to try to make his points clear. She felt a tug inside her that made up her mind for her. This was right, this was good, this is something she could, should, and ultimately would do. Dean had hit on the point she had just come across herself. She thought she was here to watch over people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter I think, so hopefully it makes up for the month without an update because I was without my computer. The only one that's in contention with this chapter for longest is Chapter 1 - Sunset Eyes. I hope you enjoyed it.


	6. “Please Keep Your Arms inside the Vehicle at All Times, and Enjoy Your Ride”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter than usual, but also fluffier than what I expected. I suppose that evens it out in the end.

“It’ll be my first time doing anything of this sort, but I don’t want to lie. I like the idea; me protecting a human. I can’t say it isn’t what I’m supposed to do. In fact, it feels like maybe that’s what I’m here for. To be some sort of guardian angel for you humans. I’m in.” Nina agreed.

Dean smiled, “Okay! Yeah, this should work then. You’re coming with us on this case, and you’ll watch over Sam, and we’ll figure out this Enochian luck charm or whatever it is, and hey! We might even find out more about you, Nina. It’s all seeming like a win-win-win.” As he said the last words his smiled somewhat faded.

“What’s up?”

“It does seem like a win-win-win.” Dean said.

“Yup, and what’s wrong with that?” Nina inquired slightly confused as to why something good could be construed as bad.

“We’re Winchesters. Nothing this good ever happens to us. There are no win-win-win’s in the cards for us.” Dean turned around to open the door to the hallway. “We’re cursed.”

As Nina and Dean entered into the library where Sam was, night had truly started to settle onto the world. Dean filled in Sam on what they confirmed Nina could do while Nina herself had a small breakfast of an apple that Sam had brought out for her. After confirming their plan to set off for Vegas in an hour they went their separate ways to prepare for their travels. As they dispersed, Sam caught up with Nina.

“Hey, Mnemosyne. Can I ask you something?” Sam questioned as he caught up with her.

“Is that not in itself a question?”

“Haha, true, but really. Is it okay?”

“Of course. Fire away.” Nina stopped walking and turned to face him. Which, granted, was hard since she had to take a step back to look up at his face.

He hesitated. Not sure whether he should go behind his brother’s back to ask what Dean was up to.

“Oooookay, does that mean there is no actual question and you’re just messing with me?” Nina asked after a few seconds too long of a pause.

“No. I mean yes, there is a question.” Sam switched tactics, “Is it too much to ask if you could show me where your rooms actually are?” he smiled, “I want to have something I can hold over Dean other than my research skills.”

“What? He has things he can hold over you?” she laughed a curt laugh, “Yeah, I don’t see why not. One of you should at least know, and maybe it’s better to tell the brother who didn’t go snooping around for it.” She led him down towards the hidden door. As they were walking you could hear Sam answer her question:

“He does actually. Have you even seen his handwriting?! I never knew, and who would have known?”

\---

The group reconvenes in the library again to go over what Nina packed since it’s her first hunt, though, as Dean tries to point out that she probably won’t be doing much hunting anyway.

“You’re going to want good shoes. Good shoes are the foundation of this job. Not any of those high heeled, frilly, frew-frew things that girls have.” Dean states while staring at her shoes.

“Dean. Let me just get this out there now: I’m a Gargoyle. As stated in one of the books that came from my room: I don’t have much in the way of possessions. In other words, the ones I’m wearing are the ones I have.” She rocked back onto her heels and lifted the front of her feet.

“Right. Yeah. I read those, but Sam read them as well and he has the better memory so…” Dean trailed off searching through his bag for an example of what next to have. “You always need some sort of weapon on a hunt. Keep it with you. It will protect yo- right okay. Maybe you don’t need any.” When Dean turned back around with his trusty handgun Nina was examining the talons at the end of her wings delicately with her claws. As Dean trailed off she smiled wide and toothy at him to show they were all as sharp as any knife in his bag. “I’m just gonna let Sammy take it from here.” Nevertheless, he slid a sheath that housed a knife over to Nina who picked it up with human hands and an appreciative nod towards Dean as he picked up his bag and headed out to his baby.

Sam looked over to Nina, who was on the opposite side of the table to him, as he repacked his bag after checking that he had everything. “You good?”

“I’m good. I’m not sure if I’m ready or not, but somehow I’m betting this Gargoyle-ian instinct I’ve been feeling off and on kicks in when the time is right.” She turned her gaze from the recently closed door over to Sam, “I’ve never been in a fight before. At least, not that I remember.”

“I’ll show you a few quick tricks if you want at rest stops and stuff. Just nothing too physical; we don’t need people to think I’m attacking you.” Sam picked up his bag and walked over to the light switch readying to turn it off. Nina picked up her back pack, which looked like it weighed a lot less than the gym type bags the guys were carrying, and slipped her arms into it. Tightening the straps she stared back at Sam catching his eyes, “Ready?” Sam asked.

“I hope.”

\---

“We really need to get you something to cover up those irises of yours. How did you go out in public with them before us?” Sam asked as they slid into the impala.

“I hoped that people would assume they were fake.” She said as she got comfortable in the back seat.

Dean started the car, “Well, maybe we can get some fake colored contacts near or around Vegas. I mean, so many things there are fake anyway.”

“But not the security, right?” Sam smirked.

“Drop it.”

“What?” Nina looked at the two guys confused.

Dean pointed at his smirking brother, “We are not talking about this.” He turned around to point at Nina, “You will never hear that story.” Finally, he switched gears and they were off. Unable to stop herself Nina watched the only place she ever knew slowly get farther and farther away from her. She thought she should feel some unease or discomfort, but she really felt nothing besides the ordinary. She’d be back to protect the place again. She had little doubts about that.

The tranquil quiet of beginning a journey was soon stomped out by Dean’s music. It was night, the time when humans usually slept, so Nina just assumed it was Dean’s way of not only occupying time but keeping himself awake on the hypnotizing roads they were traveling. Mnemosyne was nearly glued to the windows as Dean saw when he quick peeked in the rearview mirror to check on her. Unbeknownst to him a corner of his lip drew up as his eyes wandered back to the road. He remembered the times Sammy had been excited about the new terrain. It hadn’t lasted long, but those snippets of seeing his little brother’s eyes large and round and full of imagination and wonder at the world, and knowing he wasn’t scared or fearful of what was out there always stuck with him.

Sam had fallen asleep early on in their travels, so it was just him and the road… and Mnemosyne. He wasn’t used to having someone up with him. It was weird, but oddly comforting. “What’s that?” he heard something over the music. He turned down the volume and asked her to repeat. “I said, what’s that?” He glanced in the mirror to see Mnemosyne pointing at the cacti they were passing.

“They’re cactuses. You mean to tell me there aren’t any books on plants in that library?” Dean’s face read unbelieving.

“If there are I didn’t read them. I read what was interesting to me. I don’t just read to read, Dean, I read what I felt like.” Mnemosyne peeled her face off the window and caught Dean’s eye in the mirror. “Maybe I’ll read more about plants when we get back.”

Dean nodded and slowed down as they approached where he needed to turn. They were making great time, but the sun was changing the sky. He turned towards Sam to see him still out, that boy could sleep through anything if he was in the car. Maybe it was like his safety blanket since he essentially grew up in it. A yawn from the back seat caught his attention. “You can go to bed if you want. Exciting night for you with all those cacti and newfangled plant life you got to see.”

“Haha, Dean, haha. You don’t mind?” she asked already trying to find a situation in which she could curl up and sleep.

"Honestly, Mnemosyne, not much. I’m used to it, and I think I've grown to enjoy it a bit as well. These night rides and me have long been buddies. I mean I don’t really trust Sam too much to drive the baby, so when I can drive I do. As much as possible. Sam finds it relaxing to sleep and I find it nice to be able to contribute to him being able to sleep.” He checked out of the corner of his eye to make sure that Sam was indeed still asleep. He didn't need Sam holding that one against him, “You know, he used to have nightmares as a little kid, Mnemosyne. This stuff isn’t any joke. What we deal with can be frightening.” He turned around as he turned onto another empty highway and let off the gas a bit, “I wish we had more time to prepare you for this.” He told the now sleep filled car.

Turning back to the road Dean turned the volume back up and stepped back onto the gas.


	7. Worrying Can't Make Nina's Hair Go Gray at Least

For the rest of late night into early dawn Dean got through New Mexico and into Arizona, which was right on his schedule. As the world started to wake up with the sun Dean turned off the lights on the Impala. It was different feeling the weight of more than just him and Sam in the vehicle. He had driven with other people in the back seat many times, but the full blown weight of what they were taking on seemed to add to the weight Mnemosyne placed in backseat. It was somewhat intimidating. They really had no idea how to get this girl’s memory back, and what if they couldn’t? It’s not like they had Bobby they could drop her off with and know she’d be taken care of. It’s not like she was a child either, the way she looked and acted, she had to be, at least, in her middle twenties. You could even stretch it and could be 30 and look young for all he knew.

Maybe Cas was a good idea. He could do some angel mojo and conjure up what she was missing. Or maybe he could take care of her like he took care of Jimmy Novak’s kid, Claire. She was doing quite well for herself. He made a great father when he really put his mind to it, and maybe that’s why he shouldn’t bother him with this. He was busy being father not only to an actual kid, but to newly reformed Heaven. The thoughts bounced around his head as he pulled into yet another gas station to fill up as the sun rose.

Higher into the crisp, cool air the sun started to chase away any fog from the parts of the world that dampness gathered. The wisps of it disappearing like the dreams from behind Sam’s closed eyes as he slowly awoke when the Impala rolled to a stop at what seemed to be a renovated station. A luxury to the Winchesters, this would let them pamper themselves a little with the mini diner inside and what could count for a full blown bathroom for the masses inside. Dean had already gotten out of the car before Sam was moving and awake, so as he leaned back in he greeted his sleep numbed brother.

“Ayyy! ‘mornin little brother! How’dya sleep?” he picked on him with a slightly raised voice. In answer Sam threw him a somewhat angry look, and without even having to look back at Mnemosyne, pointed at her form in the back seat. Dean immediately understood and lowered his voice while keeping the patronizing tone, “Whoopsie, but she’s totally out. Do you think it’d be fine to park on the side and get some breakfast without waking her up?”

“I think it’d be fine. We’re in the middle of a semi-desert and I’m halfway to the point of thinking she can take care of herself without the help of me teaching her anything.” Sam said while climbing out of the car and stretching. “Nice call on stopping.” He forced out through a particularly intense stretch and yawn combination.

“Yeah, man, these places are the best. Top notch, ten out of ten.” Dean said putting the nozzle into the tank. “The diner looks pretty great as well… maybe we should wake her up.”

“Dean, did you actually read those books? Or pay attention to more than just the food she made us the first day we got back to the bunker?”

Dean looked off to the side a bit miffed,“She makes a mean meal, Sam! And…well, no I didn’t, but why should I need to when you have that covered? You’re with me and you have the better memory of the both of us so you can be the walking encyclopedia of knowledge on Gargoyles”

“I don’t buy that, but whatever, they don’t eat much. I’d vote to let her sleep.”

“Hey, Sam.” Dean placed the nozzle back in the cradle, paid via card - not theirs of course - and shut the tank. “Do you think they have dreams like we do?” He tapped lightly on the glass of the back seat’s window with the top of his finger.

Sam had opened the passenger side door to get back inside and paused to look at his brother confused, “I’d bet yes. I don’t see why not. Gargoyles, from what I’ve read, seem pretty human in their actions and their bodily functions. I’m sure they have nightmares as well.” He got back into his seat as Dean opened his door and slid back behind the wheel. “Why do you ask? Any particular reason you’re thinking about dreams?” Sam arched an eyebrow.

Starting the car and pulling out of the pump’s space he adjusted to the driver’s seat, “I don’t know. Just curious. Thought came across that she might remember something in her dreams and that could give us a clue where to start with her mystery. Maybe I should have read those books of yours.”

“I have them in my bag.”

“Are you joking?”

“No. While I may remember some of what I read; having information on hand is useful for when you want to know exactly what it said. Do you want to read them?”

“Maybe later.” Dean shut off the car and checked to make sure he had money in his wallet. “Let’s get some chow and hit the road again. I want to get to Las Vegas before nightfall, and if there’s any construction who knows when we’ll reach our motel.”

“Maybe if there’s construction and you get tired you can let me drive and get that shut eye you’re so obviously after.”

“Not a chance Sammy-boy. I’m good for driving for nearly forever as long as it’s my baby.” Dean said as he tapped the hood of the car while following Sam inside.

\---

The meals were pretty fantastic, and the warmth of coffee and freshly made meals perfectly refuted the chilly morning air of the springtime desert. Dean had commented on the fact that the muffins didn’t look like they would add up to what Nina makes, don’t waste money on them. Sam had smiled and instead ordered the pancakes, while Dean, always wanting to be slightly different ordered waffles. After the meal, Dean went to go “freshen up, got to look my best when we get to Las Vegas. Who knows who we’ll see?” Sam went out to the car.

Opening the door he found the air inside to be about the same temperature as outside, which wasn’t too warm and inviting. He glanced back at Mnemosyne, and seeing that her body had settled into what looked like an awkward position, he took off his jacket and folded it into what could be considered a crude pillow. Hoping Dean was correct, and that she was “totally out”, he gently picked up her head and placed the ‘pillow’ between her and the door frame. Next, he pulled out a scratchy looking blanket from Dean’s bag in the trunk, where he knew he kept it for when he was feeling extra brotherly and would throw it on him while driving when they kept their bags in the back seat. He opened the opposite door to where Mnemosyne was laying her head and covered her with what he knew to be a warm blanket despite its looks. With his caretaking done he got comfortable himself in the passenger seat and quick hooked up to the Wi-Fi in the diner to finish reading a new article he had found on Aaron Gilbert before they had left the bunker.

Dean came sauntering out of the station mere minutes later and popped back into the car… with the waitress’s phone number. Sam’s eye roll went unnoticed as Dean pulled back onto the road.

“What reading did you get done there?” Dean said as Sam slid the laptop back into what he had taken to calling his ‘carry-on’ bag over the years of road traveling. Smaller than the bags where he kept the real tools of the trade; this one mostly held things to keep him occupied on the road and stuff he thought him or Dean may need in emergencies of varying sorts.

“Aaron Gilbert. Was just reading some more about him from earlier articles. Nothing new though. Still no real leads on the “luck charm” necklaces those two have.”

“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

“Yeah, but we need a plan on how to attack this situation. How are we going to go about getting these guys, or at least one of them, to spill it on where they got those from?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know,” Dean seemed lost in thought for a moment, “Maybe we get Nina to get all super done up and sweet talk them? She’s not exactly NOT a looker, Sam”

“What?! Dean! No way do I feel comfortable just using her like that!”

“I’m fine with it… Dean’s right…” Nina said as she readjusted to sleep.

Feeling vindicated Dean pointed back at the Gargoyle and gave a quick reaffirming glance at his brother of his win in this situation. “See. She agrees with me.”

“…I don’t like it… don’t really wanna do it… but will…’night” she mumbled going back to ignoring the conversation and falling into sleep again.

After pausing the conversation to allow time for Nina to fully fall asleep again they continued the mini argument in a more hushed tone.

“Okay, so. We’ll let her get close to them, but what then? She gets close and what does she do next? Lure them to us?” Dean asked, leading the conversation into more of a planning mode instead of arguing.

“I’d like to bring them to us, but that may not be the right choice. Maybe she can sprinkle light questions throughout their conversation to first find out if they’re doing this willingly or if they got tricked into it. If they did get tricked we can figure out by who and leave terrifying them out of it.”

“You sure she’s ready for that? Do you think she can pull that off?”

“She’s smart Dean. I’m sure with the little bit of coaching I’ll get in with her on… well not on the road anymore since you made such good time,” Here Dean smiled, “but at the motel. We can do a little training session there, and it’s not like she’ll be completely alone. I’ll be with her.”

“Don’t remind me. I’m still not a fan of you leaving me out of this." Sam tried to interject that it wasn't his fault Dean wouldn't be along for this one, but Dean barreled on, "After all we’ve been through all these years, and after that last battle… I thought you were gone. Now that you’re here and we have no big baddie to fight against… I don’t want to go through losing you again.” Dean surprised Sam with the short burst of brotherly love. “Ahhh, don’t go getting too attached to heartfelt spiels like that. I don’t know what came over me.” Dean immediately contradicted his loving tone of the earlier comments with a snarky tone.

“We’ll be fine, Dean.” Sam said, “What’s up with you anyway. I mean really. Back at the bunker you were inhaling that book and now you’re going all sappy on me. Is something wrong?”

“It’s not sappy it’s just truth, and if you don’t like it I won’t go spilling my feelings out to you anymore.”

“No, it’s not that, I’m actually getting worried. There’s something you’re not telling me, and I would appreciate it if you would break the news sooner rather than later.” The silence grew as Dean continued driving, showing no resolve to tell Sam what was going on. “Seriously, you’re asking me about dreams, doubting my ability to stay alive, and worrying over whether or not to wake Mnemosyne. What’s up?”

“Sam. Everyone we’ve ever known and gotten close to has died in this business. I’m not sure if I really want to drag her into this mess with us. Charlie died bloody and alone, and hell, probably very scared. Bobby died and tried to help us by staying as a ghost. Jo, Ellen, Ash; dead, dead, dead. They all were trying to help, and they all ended up dead. Garth man, he was changed. He’s not even human anymore.”

“That was before though. With freaking Lucifer and Lillith and all those huge plots we ruined. This is back to “small stuff”, like you wanted. Who have we known that’s died on small things like this? And if it gets big then we just back her off and let her live in the bunker again. Okay? Everything will be fine this time.”

“If this gets big, we back off. We call other hunters and we pack up and go home. You got that?”

Sam smiled at the word home, “Yeah, okay. Easy enough. Then, if we do back off, we’ll just focus on getting Mnemosyne’s memories back.”

\---

The rest of the ride was uneventful other than Sam finding out Dean had only booked one room so he had to get Nina a room during one of their last stops. It was next door, which was lucky, since the place was actually filling up. Arriving at the motel later that day they unpacked the car and headed to their rooms.

When Nina reached her room she was pleasantly surprised that it somewhat resembled her place in the bunker. It was only one room and a bathroom instead of two rooms and a bathroom, but it was familiar enough that she felt nearly at home in the farthest away she could ever remember being from her home. Sam and Dean finished preparing for their first night there right before there was a knock on their door. After opening it, Nina walked in.

“Okay, what’s the whole plan? I only heard that tiny bit, so inform me.” Nina said taking a seat at the tiny table.

“The farthest we got is for you to try to get some information from them by asking questions about them and what they do and how they came about the necklaces.” Dean said.

“Ask questions, get answers, come back, plan a new plan. Anything I’m missing here?” Nina asked.

“Not really. Let’s try some practice rounds first.” Sam said as he sat down across from her.

\---

“Again.” Dean said twirling his hand in a circular motion as Nina’s head fell nearly to the table.

“Oh my God, Dean! We’ve done this enough. I get it. Can Sam and I get out for at least an hour tonight? There’s no way I’ll even be able to make contact with him this night anyway with how long this is taking.” She commented.

“I don’t think so. Sam caught you in a slightly suspicious question last time. I say we go again.”

“Everything I ask, in any way, could come across as suspicious. Especially to you guys since YOU’RE IN ON THIS!” Nina threw her hands down at her sides while she stood up, the anger slipping away just as easily as her momentary smiles. “Just let me go get a feeling for the place, Dean. I know I can figure this out you just need to give me the chance. I’m not exactly stupid and defenseless here. I mean for crying out loud you even asked-“Dean had already started talking over her once she started her last sentence, so she gave up.

“Yeah! I know, I just really want this to go off without a hitch! I’m not doubting you in the least, Nina! I guess… I guess I’m just becoming overbearing since I can’t come along.” Dean settled down onto his bed. Sam looked at each of them in turn feeling slightly amused, somewhat alarmed at the escalation to yelling, and left out at the same time. “Okay, head on out. Get a feeling for the place as much as you can tonight. I expect you guys back here at the crack of dawn though.”


	8. Dresses, Bowties, Heels, and Ties

“Who does he think he is? My father?” Nina plopped down in the front passenger seat of the impala this time, buckled in, and crossed her arms like the children she had seen on the television shows she watched in the bunker sometimes.

“Like he said he’s worried since he can’t come along and it really is your first case. Don’t take it too personally; I’m sure he meant well by it.” Sam said getting into the driver’s seat and starting the car up.

Nina huffed a breath out and uncrossed her arms, understanding that she was acting childish and that Dean was actually worried about what might happen when he couldn’t be there himself to help right away if something went haywire. It was gargoylian in how fast the change happened from her anger to her acceptance. “Okay, so where are we gonna find Aaron?”

Sam tossed his phone over onto her lap. She picked it up and looked at the screen, which was showing a picture someone had posted on social media with their group of friends and Aaron and Caleb were in the middle of the group. The caption said: ‘Met this Big Shot outside of the casino we’re going in tonight. Hope he doesn’t clean out the place before we get some winnings for ourselves! #HighRoller #AaronGilbert #Gettin’Paper’ the picture had a clear shot of the name of the casino above their heads. “Well that answers that question.” Nina said giving Sam his phone back as he pulled out of the parking lot. They bounced along the bumpy, construction ridden road that lead to the motel back out to the street that lead further into town. The windows were down and the lights of the city lit up the sky in place of the stars they blotted out that night.

After a few short minutes of driving Sam pulled into a store’s parking lot, “Gonna go in and try to find you some colored contacts so you don’t stand out too much for the wrong reasons.” As he shut the door he leaned back into the opened window and asked, “Any specific color you want to have?”

“Surprise me. Anything new is slightly exciting.” She answered. Sam nodded and walked into the store. Minutes later he walks back out with honey brown contact lenses and some solution for Nina in a small plastic bag that he throws through the window onto her lap. “Oooh, pretty.” She said as she opened the bag and pulled out the contents. Sam waited until she had figured out how to put them in before he started driving again. The next time they stopped it was in front of a higher end dress shop.

“Okay, Mnemosyne. We need to get you a dress that will draw his attention towards you. Would you like me to come in and help you pick one out?” Sam asked with a string of some emotion through his voice that Nina couldn’t put her finger on. He shut off the engine for the second time that night and silence sliced through the air for a moment before the sounds of cars on the street filled the gap in their ears.

“Of course! How am I to know what guys will like to see me wearing? Who knows if I’ve ever even worn a dress before since I don’t own any currently? I mean, I’ve seen shows, but I don’t know what looks good on myself.” as she stepped out of the car she noticed the shoes she had on, “And also different shoes. I suppose heels.”

As they entered the brightly lit entranceway and the door closed behind them the noise of the cars became muted, and the smell of the shop wafted out to meet them. It smelt like a place to spend money if there ever was such a scent. Sam pulled open the inner door to an attendant that came up to them and cheerily said, “Hello, how can I help you today?” as she glanced at Nina, then to Sam and then back to Nina and added, “We have a sale on right now, if you purchase a dress in one of our signature collections,” here she waved over to one side of the store, “you get a tie or bowtie and handkerchief in the matching color and design for free. Which I believe would be wonderful to make you as a couple stand out.” She ended with a smile that gently touched her eyes and revealed small wrinkles.

Nina’s eyes widened the least bit at the last sentence, “Oh! We’re not-“

“Buying for me, yet. Are we, Nina, dear?” Sam grabbed her around the shoulders and drew her closer, which was more than awkward for her to stand with her head in his armpit, “But that does sound nice, should we go over to the signature collections then?” he added as he started leading the way to the side she waved at.

“Fantastic, and what exactly are you looking for, Nina? Any certain type of style or color?” the attendant asked following them with her happy gait. ‘She must work for commissions.’ Nina thought as she registered the unusual amount of giddiness flowing off the attendant. “We also have wedding dresses in the back. After all this is Vegas, and some people just feel like getting hitched on the spot.”

Sam stepped in to remark, “We aren’t getting married, but that is something to think about I suppose.” He added a smile at the end to ease the newfound embarrassment that colored the attendant’s cheeks off her face. “It’s a nice idea, but I think we’re looking for something more like an LBD. Nothing too fancy, but one that makes her eye catching.”

“Yes, I think I’d like something classic.” She added to Sam’s description.

“Let me go grab some dresses. I have a few in mind that might fit what you’re describing, feel free to look around though.” She said as she walked off towards the back, before she rounded a corner she caught Nina’s eye and pointed toward the dressing rooms with a wink that suggested she could also try on the dresses out on the floor.

Sam and Nina wandered around the main floor where mannequins modeled dresses to an empty audience on polished floors. The beads and trimmings on some of the dresses caught the light and threw colors across the store’s floor as Nina ran her hand over them. “If I weren’t wearing my regular shoes right now I’d probably be struggling to stand straight and still right now. There’s no reason to keep the floor this shiny.” She commented.

“If it’s clean and elegant managers think they’ll draw in more customers. What’s your shoe size?” Sam asked walking over to the display of shoes. They ranged from tall and scary to short and safe with too many colors for Nina to look at without feeling like she was viewing some sort of modern art display that she couldn’t find a meaning to. After she told him the attendant came back in with a few dresses swishing from hangers that dangled from her fingers.

“ Ready to do some dress up?” She asked as she held open the door to a large dressing room.

“Sure.” Nina walked over and into the room, which felt as big as her bedroom at the bunker. The attendant followed her in. “Umm…” Nina muttered after turning around to take the dresses to try on and finding the attendant inside the room with her.

“Don’t worry, dear. I’m here to help you get the dresses on correctly. I’ve seen many a lady in little to nothing, so just ignore me.” She said as she placed the dresses on the hangers inside the room. “Go ahead and get undressed.”

Nina did and got into the first dress, which she didn’t particularly like, so they went ahead and put that aside. As she slid into the second one with the help of the attendant she noticed she didn’t even know the lady’s name. “Frida, now let me just tie the ribbon real quick and you can go show your guy out there to see what he thinks.” As Frida finished tying the bow in the back Sam knocked on the dressing room’s door.

“Hey, Nina, I think maybe these shoes should be good with most anything.” He slid the box under the door and Frida grabbed the box for her and motioned for her to sit on the stool in the corner while she got the shoes out of the box.

“These will be perfect for any dress we try on today, according to the description of what you're looking for. He’s quite adept at this. Have you two been together long?” Frida asked as she handed two small nylons for Nina to put on her feet.

“Not really, but he does seem to know his stuff doesn’t he?” Nina asked pulling the nylons over her feet so the attendant could lace up the short black heels and buckle the clasp around her ankle.

Outside the room, after Sam had gotten the heels for Nina, his smile he had been wearing faltered a bit. She wore the same size shoe that Jessica had, and while he hadn’t thought of Jessica in a long time this little bit of shopping brought him back to a memory of the rare days when he would bring one of his books along to read outside the changing room while Jess would try on things and ask him about what he thought, to which he’d always think she was beautiful. Then she would complain that he was no help, and why did she even ask him along if he didn’t have a preference to at least some things that she wore, and then he would mark his place and go over to her as she was standing in front of the mirror and tell her that it was because she loved him. Jess would tease that, No, it was because he had a full ride and scholarships, and so he had money he could spend. As opposed to her, a broke college girl who didn’t have time for a job because she was double majoring in an Ivy League school. Finally, Sam would seal off the complaints with a kiss and whisper the words: You’re lovely in everything. You’re lovely in nothing. Falling from his lips right onto hers and then she would kiss him back and go into the changing room again to decide on what to buy.

Jarred out of reminiscing by the door to the changing room opening, Sam looked up to see Mnemosyne walking confidently out of the room to the directional mirrors. ‘We just may be able to pull this off.’ Sam thought as Nina contorted to try to look at the bow and see what it looked like.


	9. Meanwhile, Dean...

_The writer rubs her head even though by now the headache has disappeared into the haze of the mild medication she took. She hands off her task to another that had come in sometime during her writing session. She didn’t know how they knew when it was their time to fill in the part of the story she didn’t know, but she didn’t question it; she didn’t feel like she had the strength to. Being in front of the screen for so long weighed down her eyelids more than the need for sleep did. After making sure everything was as it should be, and they knew what and how to do what she had been doing, she left the room for the first time in what felt like days. The hours she spent in the room couldn’t have added up to more than one cycle through the moon and sun, and even though she knew she was tired she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep._

_She wanted to get the story down, and there was still so much to go._

After the door shut, Dean actually felt a little lost as to what to do next. It didn’t feel right to just sit around doing virtually nothing, but he didn’t have an idea in his head on what to do to help out his brother and Nina. He couldn’t recall the last time he had felt this lost. No, free. Free was a better word to describe what he was feeling. He didn’t hold the responsibility of going out on a hunt and making sure people were safe. He didn’t have the responsibility of driving to a destination. He didn’t have the responsibility to watch over Sam. At this thought he fell backwards onto his musty motel bed.

Nope, that was Nina’s job now. He hoped she would be able to hold up her end of the bargain. Bargain? Deal? Those were the wrong words again. She wasn’t getting much of anything in return, so neither of those worked. He had asked her, so it was more of a request. He had requested of her to watch over his little brother. This was true, and he had done it all on the hunch of little scribbles in an old, weird smelling library book that had a chapter on monsters. Monsters are dangerous creatures, but Nina wasn’t. So, why are there Gargoyle’s mentioned in a chapter on monsters?

Dean sat up with frustration. It had come festering up out of the thoughts like ants out of an ant hill. It wasn’t much frustration at first, just a little here and there between his thoughts, and then the little pieces added up to the swarm of what he was feeling now. And for what? There was no reason to get angry. Nina hadn’t done anything.

Yet.

Oh god, now he doubted Sam and how he had said the Gargoyle was safe. Nina; how he had said Nina was safe. He believed Sam when he had stopped him from firing on Nina, but now he was second guessing himself. This wasn’t ground he wanted to tread on; doubt was new to him. Back when he went to get Sam from college he had seen things as sharp as broken glass. Everything was laid out before him in the simple colors of black and white. Gray was introduced into the color spectrum for him when Sam started having visions and then started drinking demon blood. He had got back to Winchester normal eventually, and hunting resumed.

Until the final battle that sent Castiel back to heaven with the other angels to fix the place once and for all. Crowley and the demons went back to hell to restore what order there ever had been there. Cas. He clasped his hands together around the feeble hope that the angel wasn’t too busy.

“Cas? I could use you right now.” He held his hands out to the side and peeked out of one eye like back when he had first prayed to Cas. “Come on, just a minute or two. I need your input on something.” He opened both eyes after waiting for another minute and laid back to contemplate the ceiling tiles and wall paper. It really was an odd combination, even for Las Vegas. The soft and steady ticking of the clock faded out from his hearing and he had a split moment to think that he might be falling asleep finally before his eyes closed.

“Dean? Why do you need me?” the gravel flecked questioning voice broke through Dean’s slow and soft decent into unknown dreams. He sat up just as fast as before while his vision cleared to reveal the angel he had called upon.

“Cas? Cas, how you doing, man?” he asked as he got to his feet and walked over to give the angel a welcoming hug.

“I’m fine, Dean. Busy, but fine. We’ve made real progress if that’s what you’re asking about. I’ve appointed leaders to different groups to help me deal with each problem overall, but the leaders can take over the details on each project. There used to be so many of my brothers and sisters, and now it feels like there are just a handful of us left. I’ve fixed the holding cells where Metatron was for a while, and – “ Cas was cut off by Dean.

“Thanks for all the info, but I was more addressing how you are personally. How are you feeling, and not just physically.” Dean sat down at the small table with chairs and pulled out Sam’s laptop from his worn out bag.

“I believe I’ve already answered that. Fine, I’m fine, Dean.” He replied looking around the room, “Where’s Sam? Why aren’t you with him?”

“He’s out investigating this case we stumbled on a few days ago. I can’t go with him because… Vegas. I’ve been in trouble here before and am banned from the grounds of, well, all casinos if I remember correctly.” Dean answered scrolling down to the picture showing the two so-called best friends and their good luck necklaces. “Come over here and look at this real quick. Tell me what you make of it.” He turned the laptop screen toward Cas as he walked over from where he had appeared.

Cas crouched down to peer closely at the screen, but before he could get a close enough look Dean had shook his head and guided the angel back from the screen. After opening the picture up so it could be seen in a larger view he turned it back to the angel, who then proceeded to still get close to the screen. Not as much as before, where he might have left a nose print on the screen, but close enough to make out the details of the links in the necklace.

“Who are they? Where was this taken? Why do they have those? When – “ he was interrupted yet again by Dean.

“Woah, one question at a time. Umm, I think it was taken here in Vegas when they were being interviewed for the article. They are Aaron Gilbert and his close friend, apparently, Caleb. We don’t know why they have those chains, and that’s what we’re working on and also why I called on you. Okay any more questions?”

“No. This is serious though.”

“Yeah; I know. What are they wearing? Is it actually a luck charm as he’s claiming?”

“Yes. Well, in a way. They would bring luck to the ones that are wearing them, but not in the way Aaron is talking about. Those chains bring luck in the form of not being able to be found by angels or demons or anything supernatural really.”

“So, like a hyped up version of what’s on mine and Sam’s ribs?”

“Yes, like a “hyped up” version of what’s on your ribs.”

“What do you think we should do? Do you have any feeling that they’re dangerous?” Dean asked as he closed the tab that had opened the picture into a larger view.

“It depends on how they got the chains. If they just stumbled onto them then it’s nothing and we should just take them back.” Cas answered.

“I’m getting the feeling that they didn’t just stumble onto these. The guy Aaron,” here Dean pointed to the one in the suit, “has been winning jackpots all week, and I’m guessing it’s not gonna stop any time soon. They don’t want to be found by any supernatural beings, but we hunters are just human, and we’ve found them.”

“Do you want me to go find Sam and bring him back here so we can brief him?” Cas asked as Dean shut down the laptop and put it back in its place.

Dean shook his head, “I’ll cover Sam and Nina when they get back.”

Who is Nina?”

“Oh yeah! The other reason I called you down for help. Nina is a Gargoyle, and we’ve never encountered anything like that before. Do you know anything about them? Do they all come with missing memories or did we just get lucky here?”

“Gargoyle? What are you talking about Dean? A statue carved out for protection to buildings, believed to be able to purify water, mostly created back in-“

“No. Real. Living. True-blue… as much as we can tell. Gargoyle. I guess you’ve never met one before? It also seems to me like even you don’t believe them to be real.” Dean said placing himself back onto the creaky bed with slight worry in his eyes. Is she what she thinks she is; what Sam thinks she is? How could an angel not know a creature that must have been created by God?

“That’s true. I’ve never heard of them before now, but that’s not to say they aren’t real. There are some things that I don’t know, Dean. I never claimed to be all knowing.”

“So you know the myths of stone Gargoyles, and so do humans, but Sam knew she was a Gargoyle. Something to do with her eyes being red and orange. How does he know this and not you?”

“I’m not sure Dean. You should ask him. I will be back soon to meet with her though, and I may bring others with me. This is something that I think heaven should know about. Pray to me when you get back to the bunker so I know when it’s okay to come back down and talk with her.”

“You’re leaving already? Dude, you’ve been here for only a few minutes. Did you just take a lunch break to come down and see me?”

“In a sense, yes. I’ve already told you that I’m busy. If you guys need me though you know you two can just call on me. I will try to be there for you as soon as I can. I must go now though, there’s a minor dispute over where to place the heaven of this teenage boy.” Cas said as he stepped back from Dean. No matter how pop culturally relevant he is Cas still had a way of standing too close at times. He turned and disappeared with a fluttering of wings that sounded quite different than Nina’s did.

He resumed his position of laying back on the bed and slowly perusing his thoughts as he had been doing before Castiel finally arrived. The same things floated to the surface as they had before with how Nina wasn’t getting anything out of this, so why should she even agree to protect Sam? This worried him almost as much as the suggestion Cas gave to ask Sam how he knew about Gargoyles being real when Cas didn’t even know about them.

The emotion battled valiantly to keep him from nearing the brink of sleep he needed after driving so long. It pulled on strings attached to silly things that he hadn’t thought of in a long time, like what did Sam study at college while he was there that didn’t relate to his major? What would life had been like if this hadn’t happened? If that didn’t go wrong? Why could he hear Cas’s wings but not touch them? He could touch Nina’s. What was Sam doing right now? Was Nina willing to give up her life in order to save his brother? The last thought that forced the worry to settle and let sleep take over was of how dangerous could this mission get?

_The new writer looked around for the woman who had been typing before. He didn’t have a lot to add and had just finished the part she wouldn’t know from either perspective she had. He drummed his fingers beside the laptop and read through what all had been written as he waited. He hadn’t known Nina as closely as the other writer had, but she felt it necessary to get as much as possible into this writing that could help others. After half an hour his patience had run out and he plugged in the laptop to keep it from running out of power and left to go do what he needed. She would rewrite what he wrote in her own style to keep consistency, and so he had done everything he could at the time. No need to hang around._


	10. The Many Ways Fighting Takes Place

_The writer came back to the laptop slightly open casting its electronic glow toward the floor since the man had left the laptop toward the edge. She thought that was risky, at least more risky than she could probably ever be again and pushed it inwards on the table. After rereading and settling in again she picks up around where her last chapter had left off to continue what she had come to think of as Not Her Story._

Mnemosyne pulled up the browser on Sam’s phone that he had given her after the purchase of the dress and accessories. The social media page for the man named Aaron was still up and she refreshed to see if there was anything new posted. After the page loaded back in the only thing that had changed was a simple caption with a picture of a check above it, ‘Again, guys. This is crazy.’ was what appeared in the caption.

“Looks like he’s just won again.” Nina said as she flipped the phone’s screen toward Sam to show him the updated feed as they walked to the car through the night’s warm air.

“Well, shit, that happened faster than I thought it would. Or did we stay in there longer than I thought we did?” checking the time in the corner of the phone he noticed it was a bit of both, “Hopefully he’s still hanging out at the casino. We’ll get a feel for how he acts in regular clothes and then tomorrow night we’ll go in for the information.”

“Or maybe we just skip it altogether tonight and drive out somewhere nobody is and you train me a bit in fighting.” She suggested instead as she tossed the newly bought clothes into the back seat and took her place in the passenger seat.

“I mean, yeah, we could do that I guess, but honestly I think we should scope him and his friend out a bit and then go try out some punches and throws.” He glanced over to Mnemosyne and noticed the slight look of disgust at his suggestion. “Or we can drive out to the middle of nowhere, which would fulfill that promise I made to train you on the road.”

“Yeah, you never did follow up on that, so doing it now would be awesome.” She said as the slightly screwed up corner of her mouth softened into a real smile that slowly melted off her face, “This should be fun. I have no clue how to fight, or at least I don’t think I do. Maybe I have instincts about it that come along with being a Gargoyle, eh?”

Sam nodded and took a left turn onto a road that lead out past the city limits and into the desert. After pulling the impala off to the side of an open area he got out of the car and dragged his foot on the ground to create a circle. Inside the circle he inspected the ground for rocks and sticks that would not be helpful to land on when tossed to the ground. Nina had stepped out by that time and helped with the comb over of the dirt.

Sam straightened to his full height and clapped his hands together, “Are you ready for this? I think we should start with how to punch.” Nina had curled her hands closed with her thumb on the inside while he was talking; “While that might feel more natural to you it’s safer to throw a punch with your thumb on the outside. Plus, you never know, with your claws you might be able to do some extra damage with the claw on the outside.”

Nina adjusted to how Sam had advised and followed how he moved when he demonstrated a straight punch, a hook, and an upper cut. He showed her how to throw her elbow and told her that using her elbow would be advantageous since it was mostly skin and bone, so it wouldn’t hurt her as much as it would the attacker. They moved to actual practicing with Sam being the attacker after a short speech on how to step on the instep seemed to confuse Nina.

“You see this indent here.” Sam pointed out where the inside of his foot curved right below his ankle; “This is where you want to plant your heel as hard as possible. Drive it down and into it, and if you want try to shove them in the same direction to throw them off balance and possibly onto the ground.” Nina practiced this once without actually stepping on his foot and managed to throw him off balance due to her strength being slightly more than what you would consider normal or average on a human. That wasn’t from a book, so they resolved to add that into one as a note at the back.

The two continued their practice session until Sam got tired of being tripped and tossed and was slightly bruised on his body and ego since it was someone smaller than him throwing him down so readily. He didn’t show his damaged ego but he felt it, and he thought that it might have to do with finally having someone to teach younger than him. It was kinda like Charlie, but Charlie had done most of the work on her own and in her own way. After having his breath knocked out of him for what felt like the hundredth time he leaned back on his palms and declared that they were done.

“Aw, come on! It’s only been like an hour, Sam! This was starting to get really fun.” Nina’s shoulders dropped and her stance changed back to just standing as she offered her hand to help him up.

“Yeah, I know. It’s been over two hours though, and we said we’d be back by sun rise, and the sun rises earlier and earlier in the spring so we should get going.” Sam made his excuse as he gratefully accepted the helping hand up and walked over toward the car.

“So next time you get a knife and I’ll use my claws, right?” Nina said with a smile that played on her face all the way to her eyes as she reached out to open her door.

Sam’s eyes widened without looking back at her, and he poised himself and answered, “I’m not sure about that.” As he opened the driver’s side door and Nina climbed in on her side.

“I’ve already mastered all this stuff though, and I need to know how to use my own body’s provided weapons.”

“I think we’ll wait ‘til we get back to the bunker for that. Maybe there’s some body armor I can wear and you can use your claws and wings then. I don’t really want to use a knife on you just yet, but you’re right. You should learn how to use what you have.” Sam said as he started up the car again for either the last time that night or the first time that morning.

“I wonder how my claws and talons will hold up to armor. That’ll be neat to test out. What I can rip through. Don’t you think? Discovering more and more about Gargoyles every day. The Winchesters should write a book on me.” She said as she buckled in.

“Haha, we just might.” Sam said as they pulled out of their practice area and headed back to the motel.

\---

The Impala pulled into the parking lot as the sky started changing colors like Nina’s wings. Sam got out of the car as Nina grabbed the bag, and they climbed up the stairs to the room that Sam and Dean were staying in. They didn’t need to open the door as Dean had heard his baby pull in and had opened the door to let them in.

“Well, at least you’re on time,” Dean said as he stepped aside for the two to get through, “What happened to you, Sam?” He directed to Nina as he noticed a slight limp to Sam’s step.

“Not my fault.” She said defensively, and then proceeded to correct herself, “Kinda my fault.”

Sam sat on the bed farthest from the door, “I was teaching her some fight moves and had her try out the moves on me. She learns fast and she’s stronger than she looks. Strong enough to make a note of it in one of the books.” He pulled out one of them from his pack and grabbed a pen from the stand between the beds. As he scribbled Dean stopped relented his stare down of Nina and closed the door as she took the seat at the table.

“So you didn’t actually go do surveillance on the guy? Did you figure anything else out other than Nina’s strength?” He asked.

“Nope, not really. Only that. Got a dress and some shoes for an outing tomorrow to actually go and meet Aaron and Caleb.” Nina said as she picked the bag off the floor and placed it on the fake wood of the table.

“Yeah, we’re pretty much set for tomorrow, Dean. What’dya do while we were gone?” Sam replaced the book in his pack and tossed the pen so that it landed on the table beside the cheap dim lamp. He noticed that light was starting to stream in so he leaned over and flicked the switch to the off position. “Get any reading done? Maybe took a nap?”

“God, no. With you two accidents waiting to happen out on your own? Just sat around, you know, worrying. Very boring.” He waved his hand around as if trying to swat the question out of the air.

“Okay, little meeting over, I’m out. It’s most definitely time for me to go to bed.” Nina stood back up and marched out the door into the misty early morning air without a backwards glance.

\---

_The switch between writers was faster this time, since the other was beside her to pick up verbally telling her what she couldn’t recall even with the extra memories. She typed as he talked._

\---

“She’s very decisive. I like that.” Dean said as he plopped onto the bed closer to the door. They heard the door to Nina’s room right next to them open and then shut abruptly. The next thing was the swishing pull of the blinds and curtains closing over the window in her nearly identical room, and then she was quiet.

“Want to tell me about what you aren’t telling me?” Sam cut right to the point.

Dean tried to dodge the question, “I’m not sure what your talking about Sam,” but as he looked over at his brother he saw that there was no way around the question other than head on. “No, Sam, I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“I don’t care if you want to or not. I was just being polite offering you the option to deny telling me what I most definitely need to know.” Sam retorted.

“How do you know that you need to know? It’s not hurting anything or anyone.”

“Come on, Dean. You know that’s how this always starts. We keep something that isn’t actively hurting anything that WE, on our own since we aren’t sharing the information, can see. But eventually it comes around that it most obviously WAS something that we should have told each other a long time before the problem came about.” Sam kicked his shoes off with practiced ease toward the wall like he had been doing since childhood. Each hit the wall with a soft thump and settled, foot hole up, against it.

“Ugh, I called Cas. We talked while you were gone about the case… and Nina.” Dean diverted.

Sam huffed a sigh and looked at him out of the corner of his eyes; Dean answering with information he hadn’t asked for didn’t fool him, but he let it slide once more. “What did he have to say?”

“About the case? That the chains they’re wearing block them from being found by the supernatural, so kinda like what he carved on our ribs,” here Sam put a hand to his side as if feeling the slight pain again, “Angels and demons and all that fun stuff, but he didn’t believe that Nina was living at first. He assumed that she was a statue. Which leads me to this question: How did you know about Gargoyles when Cas doesn’t even know about Gargoyles, Sam?” The silence swam with Dean’s curiosity and Sam’s slight reluctance to talk, but it wasn’t something that lasted. It dissipated as Dean got up to go to the bathroom, “Well.” He stated as he walked away.

“There was a book.”

“Ah, here we go. Now who’s holding information from who?”

“It’s whom. See, I’m not holding information back, but YOU still are.”

“Oh, like ‘whom’ even matters in today’s world, get back to explaining the book.”

“I dropped most everything related to hunting while I was in college. I wanted to break away from that and not dabble in it, but there are things that are connected in slight ways to hunting. Mythology classes, for instance, totally relate. While I was taking a class in it-“

“But that didn’t have anything to do with your major, right? Aw, is Sammy interested in mythology?” Dean said in a mocking voice as he came sauntering back out of the bathroom to his bed.

“Do you want to hear the story or not?” Sam looked over at his brother who signaled for him to continue on.

“So I’m researching, and I go to the library to browse through some books related to what I’m going to be writing a little paper about. I come across this one that seems slightly out of place. It was more hand bound than professionally done, like Dad’s journal, so I let curiosity drive me and I pull it off the shelf to flip through it. It’s nearly exactly like Dad’s. There’re pages on what this person found out about monsters, the best ways to get rid of them, the myths behind them. You get the drill. But nearly the last page has this one colored eye peering out from the inner corner of the page and has “Gargoyle” written beneath it. I never thought anything of it until I saw her eyes.”

“Did you study it more? Why didn’t you just take the thing if you felt like it didn’t belong?”

“I set it down on my table in my study room that I was using to study and went back out to grab some more books. By the time I got back it was gone. No use asking around about it since it didn’t belong to begin with. I assume someone probably took it, but there was nobody else on that floor and no access to the private study room without your key card letting you in. That’s why I chose that room on that floor.”

“So you’ve just been hiding this mystery from me this whole time? We shoulda looked into this back when I first came and got you, Sam. What else did the book say? Was there anything in it that we don’t know about yet, like more Gargoyle stuff?”

“Dean this was YEARS ago. I don’t remember specifics, but the Gargoyle eye page was near the end. There might have been more that we have no information on, but I never got to it. Once I saw that page I closed it and took it back to my study room. I thought it would be there when I got back, but it wasn’t. I didn’t remember about this all until now, because, well, we’ve been dealing with angels and demons and saving the freaking world, Dean! It didn’t come up. It was never that important.” Sam sat back down on his bed after having got up to let off some of the pressure that had built in him from revealing this to Dean. He should have kept the book with him, never should have let it out of his sight, but this was groveling in the past. There was nothing to be done about the lost book now.

“I wish I had seen it. Nina just makes everything so open and unknown now. Like when we were first starting out,” Dean lay back on top of the covers and looked over to Sam, “You wouldn’t remember that time.”

“No, I wouldn’t. Look, I’m gonna get some sleep so that I can be ready for the surveillance tonight, okay?” Sam said as he looked at the brighter streaks of sun slicing through the blinds, “You should, too.”

Dean nodded his head and shut the curtains over the blinds. Sliding under the old worn covers he stared at the small line of light glowing on the carpet floor as the sun rose. He really wished he could have seen that book. Who knows what else could have been on those last few pages. What were a few anyway? 4? 7? 10? At a monster… creature a page that could be ten unknowns just creeping around out there that they had no clue about. He pushed these thoughts from his mind and worked to drift off to sleep listening to Sam’s easy snoring.

\---

_The writer slid easily back into writing what she knew as the other left again to do what they needed._

\---

The Gargoyle rose to light tapping above her bed. The rooms were flipped, so her bed rested against the wall that the guy’s beds also rested against. Tossing the covers off she stood in the one set of pajamas she had packed; she didn’t think that packing the whole two pairs she owned was necessary. Nina grabbed the dress from the hook where she hung it in the closet that morning and before walking to the bathroom to get “all dressed up” she stopped by the shared wall and knocked back three times thinking a response would be what they wanted to know she was up.

After a quick shower and running a brush through her hair she slipped on the dress and shoes and stared at herself. Slightly uncomfortable with the whole situation she left to the guy’s room so that one of them could tie the bow at the back nicely instead of how she had managed to mangle it. One knock was all it took to get the door to be opened and she walked in asking for one of them to tie the dress in the back. Sam looked to Dean as he tied his tie in the mirror and so Dean tied the fabric in what came out to be an acceptable bow. Not as nice as the one the store attendant, Frida, had done, but Dean never was a store attendant in a dress shop so nobody held it against him.

They stood ready to leave, but before they could Dean asked them to wait as he went to grab his cellphone.

“Why?” Sam asked.

“Look at the cute couple going to senior prom together!” Dean exclaimed as he pulled up the camera on the phone. Sam rolled his eyes and turned to open the door so they could leave, but turned when Dean called out to him. Nina was still standing looking at Dean, but with a smile at the joke she knew about from television. ‘Ha, prom, that’s a school thing.’ She was thinking as Dean snapped the photo.

They left after that and Dean closed the camera app and sat on the bed. Turning to Sam’s pack he pulled out one of the books on Gargoyles that Sam had brought along and decided he might as well occupy himself with something while he waits.


	11. They Say No Plan Survives First Contact with Implementation (Part 1)

Sam tossed his phone to Nina and she pulled up the social media page of Aaron to get his whereabouts. After informing Sam of the casino they were hitting up tonight by reading him the caption of yet another photo that a group of people had taken with him, they were off.

“Nervous?” Sam asked.

“Not really. It’s just meeting someone new. Deciding how to meet you two made me more nervous than this ever could.” Nina answered. “But that was because you two were dangerous and I probably could have died if I went about it wrong.”

“Did you know we were hunters?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“The library has plenty of books, Sam. Some time ago there were documents kept on hunters and Men of Letters and, of course, monsters. Eventually, those stopped being kept, but I learned enough about how hunters are to understand how to spot one.”

“The Men of Letters thought that hunters were brutes. We aren’t that bad; they were just stoically intellectual and hunters were more focused on getting things dealt with and done so that people were safe instead of studying the creatures.” 

“I know. You don’t need to defend yourself. My view on hunters has changed since I met you and Dean. Obviously things change, but how did you know about me? I had everything on Gargoyles in my room and Dean didn’t seem to know about what I was. You weren’t in my building before me because I would have found you before I did if you were.”

“We were there before you. At least, that’s what I’m guessing. We sort of left the bunker towards the end of this long string of high-level monsters. Saving the world type things. We didn’t think we’d ever be back, but lo and behold we survived somehow, so we moved back in,” Nina nodded as she listened, “Now, how I knew about you. This has to do with when I left the hunting life; what seems like decades ago. I went to college and was studying one day, in the library, when I came across a book that was more like a handmade journal. In it there was a page on Gargoyles. I didn’t get to read it because a drawing of an eye like yours in the corner distracted me with “Gargoyle” written underneath. I left it in my study room, but by the time I got back to the room it was gone.”

“So, you only knew what my eyes looked like is what you’re saying? Not what I could do, or anything else helpful?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Didn’t get too much of a look at anything else on the page.”

“So what was that bow you did?” Nina turned as she asked this question. “It seemed very… I’m not sure how to describe it… Nice.”

Sam sighed and seemed lost in thought for a moment before chuckling and continuing, “You have a pretty good memory don’t you? I didn’t even remember to tell Dean about that.” Nina tucked that piece of information away to question more later. “Okay, so that’s a little more complicated to explain because I’m not even too sure how I know. I think I must have read more of the journal than I remember doing, because that’s the only way I can justify knowing what I knew when you first landed behind me. I’m hoping I just forgot it naturally, but now that we have you, Mnemosyne, with a lost, or at least fractured, memory I’m starting to doubt myself.” He finished explaining as he drove into the back small parking lot of a store near the casino. Nina caught Sam’s eye and pointed out toward where you could have a valet park the car, but Sam shook his head, “If Dean ever found out I let someone park his baby that wasn’t approved I’d be dead. It’s better to just walk over.”

As they exited the car, Sam straightened his tie and Nina tightened the bow Dean had tied for her dress. Before they started to walk over, Sam grabbed Nina’s arm and pulled a wallet out of the inside of his suit’s jacket. “Stick with your name, but if they ask for a last name use the one on this card,” he pulled out a fake ID that didn’t have her picture on it but seemed passable as official. The name was listed as Nina Turner and she was apparently 25 years old.

“Okay, so I’m a 25 year old named Nina Turner. Got it.” She took the ID and placed it in a pocket that the dress had on the side. “Ready to go?”

“Me? Yes, all I have to do is be over-watch. You have to infiltrate, which is notably harder to do. Are YOU ready?” he asked.

“When has that ever stopped me before?” she asked as she lead the way. Sam gave her some time to cross the road on her own before he started off in the direction of the casino as well.

The inside of the place was louder than she had imagined, but finding Aaron was easier than she thought. There was a crowd of people around him and one of the slot machines he was at. The machine was near the end of a line of them, and Caleb was leaning on the machine on the open side towards the aisle. Nearly everyone around the two was female, but a couple of male observers were present. They mostly stood as near the minor celebrity as they could waiting for him to win big so they could congratulate him and try to get on his good side. Nina could only get in next to Caleb, so she decided to start by talking to him.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” she asked looking over to Caleb dressed down in a nice shirt and pants. Not a suit like Aaron and Sam.

“You haven’t heard? My man here, Aaron, is winning at everything lately!” He answered with a smile.

“And you aren’t? Why aren’t you playing?” now she turned her body more toward him instead of trying to get a peek at Aaron.

“Nah, we’re best buds. I’m here for moral support. Once he started winning I decided to stop losing what he was gifting me. Now I just try to keep the ladies off him until he hits the jackpot. He always does.” Caleb answered with a wink and a quick glance up and down of Nina. “You looking to try to be his girlfriend now as well?”

“Nope. Honestly, just curious as to what was going on here. A couple of people crowded around doesn’t mean too much, but a group of about 20 tends to draw attention.”

“Tell me about it. This week has been crazy. Just came here looking to lose no more than a thousand and end up winning what’s amounting to millions. Of course, I’m just getting thousands still, but that’s enough to get anything I would want.”

“Definitely, could probably pay off two semesters of college with it, right?”

Caleb had a short burst of laughter before answering, “Hell, yeah. What’s your name? I don’t think I caught it.”

“Nina. My name’s Nina. Yours?” she held out her hand as Caleb straightened up from leaning on the machine.

“Caleb. What are you doing here, Nina? Looking to play a little, lose a lot?” he shook her hand.

“Well, I was thinking about playing a bit, but now I’m curious about what might happen here.”

“Here,” Caleb pulled out a few tokens from the slowly shrinking pile that Aaron had stacked on the machine, “come play. You gotta hit the slots at least once while in Vegas, man. It’s practically illegal to come into a casino and not.” Nina reached out and Caleb grabbed her hand as she placed hers in his to grab the coins. The coins between their palms, he lead her over to the machine at the end of the aisle a row farther so as to get away from the crowd. Letting go of her hand, he pointed to the coin slot, “Put a coin or two here, depending on what you want to play, and then push this button here.”

“Okay, if you say so. But don’t blame me for losing your money.” Nina said as she turned to smile up at him before the smile faded away. She placed one of the four coins in the machine and then pushed the button. The dials spun and landed and she came out losing.

“Try again.” Caleb urged. Nina placed another of the coins into the slot machine and repeated the process with the same results. Caleb looked slightly disappointed, “Man, I thought maybe I could win something for once. Thought maybe you might be our Lady Luck tonight.”

“Well let’s try again, third time’s the charm right?” Nina offered as support to Caleb’s waning confidence.

“Okay, do the last two and let’s see what happens.”

Nina placed the two coins in the machine, but acted like she was hesitating over the button. She looked up at Caleb, “Let’s push it together. Win or lose, at least we’ve both tried the slots tonight.” Caleb nodded and placed a finger on the button next to her. They pressed down and the dials spun. They came to rest on a small prize of ten coins. “Woo!” Nina actually felt a slight pulse of excitement at winning the game.

“Yeah, Nina!” Caleb held up his hand for her to high five and she slapped it.

“Yeah, Caleb!” Aaron shouted from behind his machine. He had stood up to watch the two try their hand at the game. “You’re lucky again, come over here and help me win, too! Bring the girl! Maybe she’s our Lady Luck tonight.” he sat back down and the sound of the dials spinning started up from his machine again. Caleb looked down at her and she reached to grab the coins from the machine once they had spilled out.

“Let’s go see if we can help him win big,” Nina suggested, this time claiming his hand.

From across the small empty space between the slots and card games Sam raised his eyebrows. He was surprised at how easily Nina was taking to this undercover work. He watched as she led Caleb back over to Aaron’s machine and saw Aaron’s pile whittle down to one last coin. Aaron seemed a little anxious as he picked it up and stood up, raising the last coin above his head, saying loud enough for him to hear, “Ladies and gentlemen, this may be the end of my winning streak, if it is thank you for all your support and fun times.” As he turned to sit back down Nina started to place five more coins down on the machine.

“Caleb’s portion of the winnings,” Nina said as she placed the coins out side by side on the small shelf in front of the screen.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. Why don’t you just blow on the last coin?” Caleb suggested.

Aaron’s face looked slightly confused, “You know that’s for dice, right?”

“Well…” Caleb fumbled around with words trying to recover, “Um, maybe, hey! Why don’t you just kiss the coin then?”

Nina raised a questioning eyebrow to Aaron, “Go ahead, couldn’t hurt, Lady Luck.” He said with a grin holding up the coin for her to kiss. Nina leaned forward toward the metal and placed a small kiss on it that barely touched. Aaron then proceeded to ceremoniously place the coin into the slot machine and then pushed the button.

As the dials spun, the crowded area grew tension in the spaces between each person with each exhale. The first ding sounded as the first dial stopped. The pressure seemed to rise and everyone pressed in a bit closer. Even though he had five more coins to go this seemed like the one everyone was hoping to win. A second ding resounded and matched the first, which only seemed to grow the tension. There was no space between the crowd now, and it seemed to have grown in number. Spectators’ arms pressed against the ones next to them creating a wall around Nina and Caleb that now wrapped and enclosed them in the space right next to Aaron.

‘With all the closeness in the crowd you’d think they’d be right up against us,’ Nina thought noting the small gulf between her group and the spectators.

Ding.

“And the crowd goes WILD!” Caleb shouted, jumping up and throwing his arms in the air. The wall mimicked him and added in their cheers of excitement.

“You ARE my Luck!” Aaron said jumping up, grabbing her, and pulling into a hug. He looked at her with a question in his eyes, which she answered by placing the same small kiss from the coin on his lips.

‘That should seal the deal and get me in,’ she thought.

“Damn Aaron, why don’t you just get a room already?” Caleb teased.

“Excuse me, excuse me, please.” A casino worker tried to make his way through the crowd celebrating a victory that wasn’t even theirs. After making it through the crush, he leaned down toward Aaron, “Would you come with me, please?” he asked. Aaron nodded and got up to follow; Caleb fell in right behind, like this was their usual routine, and started navigating through the people. Before he disappeared into the crowd he turned around and waved her forward to come with them.

As she quickly made her way up to Caleb he reached his hand backward and started to press through the crowd. She grabbed ahold and gripped as hard as she dared to, so as to not to lose him or break his hand. Silent celebration was carried on in her head, she was in.

\---

Sam saw the worker extract himself from the crowd with Aaron filtering out right behind him. Caleb made it through the press next and trailed Nina behind him. She had done it, holy crap she actually pulled it off and on the first night nonetheless. Nina definitely proved that she learned quickly, and on top of that he thought that she adapted well also. He took out his cell phone and sent a text to Dean and then slipped it back into his pocket. Before getting up to move, though, he pulled his cell out once more and fired off another short text to Dean: She’d make a great Hunter.

\---

Caleb kept hold on Nina’s hand as the worker led Aaron through a door to a room where there were monitors across one side of it. At least three people sat there watching and looking over all the screens, though there were more empty chairs so she thought that maybe there were others on the job that weren't in the room just then.

“Isn’t that a small amount of people to watch all those screens?” Nina asked her hand’s captor quietly.

“Most of the monitoring is done via computers now. They’re mostly here to double check hits that pop up from the computer and to watch the exits.” Caleb answered, “At least, that’s what I assume.” He added turning slightly with a smile on his face. Nina tried to answer it as quickly as she could. Maybe she was Lady Luck, since Caleb turned back to the front as the smile slipped from her face. They were still walking through the room, but finally reached another door that led to a staircase up to a hallway with a door at the end. The heavy wooden door led to a room where someone apparently had an office, but there was no name plate in sight. The worker waved them all in, seeming to glare at Nina as she slipped in last with her hand still in the grip of Caleb, and the door shut with a thunk and click as it slid into place.

The room held weight and stopped sound which made it all the more ominous. It felt out of place with the modern casino downstairs since it was old, or at least had the air of being historic. Mahogany wood and velvet drapes, which was weird, were they covering windows? It didn’t feel as if they were on the edge of the building, so were these windows looking out onto the casino floor? The grip on her hand tightened considerably, but Nina was taking in the room and didn’t notice the increase in pressure from Caleb. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway; he couldn’t cause any damage to her hand. The room was empty of people other than the three of them, but it seemed to hold a personality of its own. There hadn’t been any sound from the men with her other than their breathing. As Nina took her eyes off the shelves of books on either side of her, she noticed the desk and chairs in the middle of the room. There still wasn’t anybody there but the three, and Nina picked up on the guys’ changing emotions.

“So, what’s up? Isn’t there supposed to be someone here to congratulate us or something?” Caleb asked pulling Nina up to stand between him and Aaron instead of trailing behind. He finally relinquished his death grip on her hand as she walked up between the two.

“I mean, usually. You’ve been through all of these with me. We both know the drill. I have no clue why we’re the only ones here.” Aaron answered as he took a step towards the two chairs in front of the desk.

“Should I even be here?” Nina asked turning between the two.

“Yeah, Caleb, should she even be here?” Aaron repeated stepping up to the chairs and placing a hand on the top of one. It wasn’t a particularly mean comment, in fact it felt like Aaron was poking fun at Caleb, but he was obviously curious as to his choice to drag Nina along.

“Yes, Caleb, pray tell me why you’ve brought along the Lady of Luck as you two have been keen on calling her.” A man’s voice spoke up from nowhere in particular startling the group from their q and a session. The opposite side of the desk from the group remained empty with just the high backed chair facing them. It was the weirdest thing Nina had encountered yet. “So?” The man’s voice said, and you could almost see the dismissive gesture the voice’s body would have made. Nina located the phone off the stated question; that’s where the voice was coming from. Caleb seemed to have straightened up a bit at the voice and become more serious, and Aaron was just confused and seemed slightly worried. This all came across as strange to her, but she let it play out hoping she would be able to stay since Caleb brought her along.

“I… umm… I thought it would be fine to bring her along. She seems cool enough.” Caleb finally answered the question as he sat down in the chair on the left on their side of the table. The confidence in his body didn't translate into his voice.

Aaron looked at Nina, but asked the voice, “Do you not want her here?”

“Ding, ding, ding; give the boy a prize!” the voice responded. Nina was growing more uncomfortable as she stood there in Aaron’s gaze. He seemed to notice this and moved his eyes toward the desk and chairs. The intensity gone, Nina took a full breath and welcomed the relief that was given by the absence of his eyes.

“I’ll wait for you in the surveillance room we passed,” she whispered, dismissing herself, as Aaron walked forward and took the only other seat on their side of the desk. She didn't feel as if she should speak any louder, almost felt as if she couldn't. She slid back out the heavy door, making sure to fake that she was having a little trouble with the weight of it, and barely needed to pull it closed as it slid shut on her face. Another deep breath of unrestricted and non-tension filled air expanded her lungs as she took a step to the side and slid down the wall by the door. Coming to rest on the floor she tried to hear what was being said inside.


	12. They Say No Plan Survives First Contact with Implementation (Part 2)

_The others that were with the writer had come in the room she was in during the middle of her typing. They didn’t disturb her, only contributed when she asked for details to add to the story. They understood her need to get as much information about what she was writing about as she could._

She pressed her ear against the door, trying to catch anything they were talking about, but nothing came through the solid door and she eventually gave up. Nina stood from where she had slid down to the floor to catch her breath and walked with purpose toward the stairs.

‘No need to not follow through with what I said if I can’t pick up on anything through the door,’ she thought as she went down the stairs and opened the door at the bottom back into the surveillance room. The employees at the monitoring screens glanced back at her but ignored her once they recognized her as the one who had followed the winner up to the office. Nina secured an unoccupied chair in the corner and sat watching, waiting, and wondering what had just happened in the room upstairs.

\---

Sam’s phone went off with an answering text from his brother: Ha ha! See, I’m great at picking out awesome people! It read. Sam shook his head and stepped away from the stool he was sitting on and moved away. He had been at a bar area, but having had one drink he moved onto a roulette game for a little while hoping that Mnemosyne would come back by the time he had run out of his short supply of money that he had brought. Placing a bet, he turned to observe the casino.

The crowd that had surrounded Aaron, Caleb, and, eventually, Nina had started to dissipate and disperse into other areas are the casino. The women who had been grouped around the machine seemed disappointed and off-put that none of them had been chosen to hang out with the guys, but the girl who had just walked up and “barged in”, as they were saying, was the one chosen to go with them. The guys seemed tipsy and were mostly in two groups that were quickly distracted by the other goings-on in the casino.

He lost, but he was only doing “straight up” bets, betting on one number, so as to not spread his money too thin. After the table was cleared out, he placed one of his red chips on 17 and looked away again to assess the floor once more. The crowd had completely dispersed by now and a few minutes had passed since Sam had last caught sight of Mnemosyne being led away. He hadn’t started to worry yet, but from his feelings that he was getting something was definitely off. He wasn’t sure if it was the casino itself, and just by luck that tonight Aaron and Caleb were here to coincide with the casino’s feel, or if it was because of them that the place gave off bad vibes. The dealer cleared the table and handed out winnings again; Sam placed his second to last chip on 11.

Either way his hunter instincts kept him on his toes. He dismissed any worry coming from the players around the table and was focused on what was going on by the slot machines. It seemed to have been vacated since Aaron had left, and not just of his crowd that he had gathered, but of other players. Possibly due to them feeling like the game had already given out the big prize for that night, so why continue? 

“11!” 

“Hey, dude, you won!” one of the players poked Sam too harshly in the right shoulder, “Maaaaan, looked like you needed that win, too. Maybe quit while you’re ahead, bro.” the overuse of ways to address him caused Sam to pull a face. Was he a dude, man, or bro? And why would he take advice from someone so obviously intoxicated? None the less, the alcohol scented man was correct. His funds had dried up considerably. He nodded at the drunk philosopher, thanked the dealer who handed him his winnings, collected his smaller than when he started pile, and headed over to the cash out counter.

“That’s $45. How would you like it?” the small lady behind the shielded counter asked.

“Two twenties and a five is fine. Sam said tapping his foot softly. Nina should have been down by now. Worry started to creep in, but how could anything have gone wrong? There was nothing that could have- maybe one of her contacts fell out and now she was trying to explain away her eyes. Maybe she had slipped up somehow and exposed what she was doing. The scenarios kept coming, each more ridiculous than the last. She could handle this and he knew it.

“Sir?” The lady finally caught his attention and he looked up, “Is everything alright?” she asked.

“Yes, yes, haha, sorry. Just wondering how I’m going to explain why I’m out so late to my girlfriend.” Sam answered with a casual smile and a shake of his head that he hoped conveyed the feeling of “uhoh, I’m gonna be in trouble”.

“Well, good luck with that.” She replied sliding his money through the window, “Have a good night, anyhow.”

Sam walked away and towards the exit of the noisy casino, still no sign of Mnemosyne. As he headed off away from the grand front entrance to the casino he pulled out his phone to update Dean. ‘Mnemosyne went up with Caleb and Aaron to collect their winnings I think. Still no sign of her. Been over half an hour now.’ After hitting send, he looked up and crossed the street towards where the impala was parked. Opening the driver’s side door, he felt his phone go off, and as he sat inside with the door open he pulled it out to see Dean’s response.

‘Well, you said she was capable. Give her some time. She’s new to the hunting game, but she’s not NEW you know?’ 

Sam rolled his eyes and placed his phone on the passenger seat beside him. His mind drifted to what they were going to do after this case. Well, for them it was easy, they’d find another case, they’d hunt another monster, they’d hold back the tide of beings trying to hurt humans just as they always had. The thing that needed pondering, though, was Mnemosyne. She was weird, he’d admit that. Nothing they’d encountered before. She seemed to have lost her memory, she didn’t look like what he’d picture Gargoyles would if they were real; in fact, come to think of it, he did only see the eye drawing in the journal from his college’s library. He didn’t have time to read anything before it up and disappeared. He and Mnemosyne had also both read what little there was on Gargoyles in the books from the library, and none of those had descriptions either. He even had the advantage of having read some of the writings in other library books from outside their own Men of Letters library.

The passenger door opened and startled Sam out of his thought process before he could travel down his trail of thought any longer. Mnemosyne plopped into the passenger side seat and looked over at him. She seemed to have rushed into the car, but showed no outward signs of distress other than having had just sat on his phone, “There’s something off about this all, really off. Let’s get back to Dean and I’ll tell you both what happened, but I’m sure this is a case.” Sam shut his door, started the car, and headed for the motel.

\---

Pulling into a parking space, Nina opened her door almost before the car had stopped rolling. Sam was taken aback by how quick she was moving and wondered what exactly she had uncovered while alone with Aaron and Caleb. Dean had opened the door to the brothers’ shared room and Nina was already up to the door. He had to step aside as soon as he opened the door since he saw her coming. After following her with his eyes they traveled back across the distance to the car to land on Sam asking him what was up. Sam of course had no reply other than to shrug.

“Do you want to hear what’s up? Get in here and shut the door. We need to talk.” Nina’s voice carried through the doorway to Sam’s ears. He hurried into the room and his brother shut and locked the door behind them.

“What’s up, Nina? What happened?” Sam asked settling down on the edge of the bed and looking at her standing with her arms crossed in front of her staring at the now closed door.

Dean spoke at nearly the same time as Sam, “Is everything okay?” He was more out of loop than Sam was, so he settled on the conclusion that something had gone wrong while Sam had ridden the whole way with Nina and wanted to know what was up.

“I think everything is as fine as it could be considering what I’ve found out, which is that there is something definitely off with this whole situation surrounding Aaron and Caleb.” Nina uncrossed her arms as Dean took a seat on one chair by the small table. He pushed the other out inviting her to take a seat, but she instead starting pacing seemingly not noticing his gesture. “Caleb seemed scared, or at the very least worried, that the room we were guided into was empty. Aaron took a playful jab at his friend asking why I was there, mirroring the question I had just asked him. Then, out of nowhere… or what seemed nowhere at first, a male voice sounding irritated repeated the question again. Caleb was nervous but tried to justify his actions, which didn’t work. I was kicked out, not literally, but it might as well have been. The tension in that room was immense.” The boys took all the information in as she spilled out all that had happened in the room.

Dean was the first to speak up, “Where was the room?”

“I’m not even sure. We went up some stairs and passed a security room, which is where I ended up when I kicked out. And past all that was the office. It was old looking, and there were curtains but I couldn’t be sure what they were there for.” Nina answered finally noticing the ajar chair and planting herself there. Sam turned so he was more in the group.

“We should check the layout of the casino to see if we can pinpoint where the room is, or where it would be” was Sam’s contribution to the conversation. 

“Yeah, you get on that. What did you get to hear of what was said between the two and the voice?” Dean continued his questioning.

“Nothing much. Really after I removed myself from the room I couldn’t hear anything other than that there was talking going on due to the mumbling from behind the heavy door. Before I left the only thing I could really pick up on is that the voice was angry at having me there and that the voice was coming from a phone set on speaker on the desk.” Nina seemed exasperated, “This isn’t the thing that bothers me though, everything that happened before the room and while I was in the room with them…” she ran a hand over her hair.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked

“After they came back down from the room I could feel the immense hate just radiating off of Aaron. He seemed to try to hide his storming past me, but honestly anyone could pick up on the irritation. The people in the security room even turned when he walked past.”

“And Caleb?”

“He came down and nearly seemed to have forgotten that he had dragged me along. It’s only because I had stood up when Aaron went by and started toward him that I got in Caleb’s way. He was looking down and nearly ran into me. I turned and he looked up from the floor. When we left the casino floor he was happy and delightful, excited, friendly… now he just seemed taken down a peg. He took my hand, but it wasn’t like before. It wasn’t cheerful. It was sad. It was lonely. When we reached the door that led out to the floor Aaron was there with the casino employee that guided us up. He seemed happy, the casino guide. Had a smirk on his face. He took us out a back exit and Aaron turned and said a curt goodbye to me then walked off. Caleb hesitated. He told me that while Aaron was being cold that it wasn’t my fault. Not that I ever thought it was. He said that he enjoyed meeting me and that he wished we had more time to hang out together. Here he rubbed his thumb over my hand and dropped it as he continued on. He said he had fun playing with me. Said I was totally lady luck and he chuckled. I couldn’t come with them; he had had his other hand in his pocket this whole time. As he started to put some space between us he picked up my hand again, took his other hand out of his pocket, thanked me for being so nice, shook my hand making sure I took what was in it, and then walked off after Aaron.”

“What did he give you, Mnemosyne?” Sam leaned closer to her as she reached into the pocket of her dress. When she pulled her hand out her fake ID fell to the floor, but the brothers were looking at her fist. She opened it and inside was gold. Inside was Caleb’s necklace.

“Holy shit.” Were the first words after a pause that was broken by Dean. “What the fuck did you do to him? Put a spell on him? He just gave this to you?” Dean didn’t seem to believe what he was seeing. Nina didn’t seem to quite believe it as well; Sam could tell by how she just stared at it laying in her palm on the table. Frankly, Sam couldn’t believe it either. This was the thing that connected the friends together and he just gave it to Mnemosyne? The twin of which was probably still around Aaron’s neck. The pair supposedly made for the two, or at least bought for the two, for their trip to Vegas. A token of friendship given to someone that Caleb had just met that night. The thing that Aaron said was a good luck charm. That he claimed was helping him win the prizes. Caleb just gave that to someone who could be considered a complete stranger. 

Something was majorly off, but just what was out of his reach. Obviously, this put a screw in their plans. She was supposed to get close, but not this close. Nina tilted her hand and the necklace gave off a slight jingle as it settled onto the fake veneered table. It drew all three pairs of eyes to it for a stretch of time. 

“What do I do now?” Nina asked.

“I honestly don’t know. I think we have to follow up on this,” here Dean poked the necklace with a pen like it was infected, “then we’ll tackle what to do about you and lover boy.”

Sam wrenched his eyes away from the surprising development and looked at Nina who was still staring at it. She seemed to have distress on her face. As he recalled she had the same face all the way back to when she started telling the story to them. The emotion had stayed through minutes of storytelling. Longer than anything he had seen on her before. Different than what he had come to believe Gargoyles were capable of. 

Doubt crept in and took hold without him noticing. This was the moment he would pinpoint as the time he started questioning when he looked back, but for now he just knew he noted that Mnemosyne was telling emotions through her features. And this was not what was supposed to be happening. This wasn’t Gargoyle, so it was wrong. That was Human. That was Demon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, thanks for reading and sticking this out with me, or if you've just found this: Thank you for reading. I'm not going to offer excuses as to why I haven't posted, but I will say this: I've had this story mapped out since about 5 months in. I know where this is going I just don't know if I have the motivation to write it.
> 
> I've been writing this for over a year now and yet I have yet to crest the first arc I have penned in my outline... maybe I took on too much for my first writing project :/ Thank you for your support and patience. I know you may be nervous to comment or say anything, don't feel like you have to, I just want you to know that I'm happy you have taken a look at what I have to write.
> 
> See you next update! :P


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